


Lucky Day

by TheodoreR



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, Hunter Theo Raeken, M/M, Werewolf Liam Dunbar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-05-08 01:22:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14683497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheodoreR/pseuds/TheodoreR
Summary: So, that just happened.It’s his lucky day and there’s now a dagger planted in his guts. This is so unfair honestly.Liam is so disappointed by the world. You can’t even follow beautiful strangers in dark and narrow alleys without being stabbed nowadays. Ridiculous.And as if having the blade of a dagger all the way up in his intestines wasn’t painful enough, Theo is now trying to twist it around while still holding the handle.Liam just wanted to save his dog and have babies with him and Theo is literally trying toguthim. That’s what you get for being nice and helpful to hot people.“You know what? This is the third fucking time you’ve stabbed me! You aren’t getting this knife back. It’s mine now.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

>  Based on this [prompt.](https://theodorerr.tumblr.com/post/173940422111/givethispromptatry-you-know-what-this-is-the)

 

Liam opens his eyes in the morning sunlight and he just knows it: today is his lucky day.

It’s a vague and indefinite feeling of course, being him a werewolf and not a magician, and his luck could come in any form, one million dollars mistakenly credited to his bank account, Sense8 renewed for a third season, a Lacrosse scholarship thrown in his way, Brett catching a sexual disease, Hayden proposing him. Maybe he’ll just become a True Alpha like Scott and he will be even more powerful than him. The possibilities are endless and as he walks out of his room to go meet his girlfriend Liam is excited to see how exactly this day will bless him.

 

 

Hayden broke up with him.

She likes Brett now apparently.

Liam didn’t cry, not in front of her anyway. He walks out of the bathroom with his eyes not even a little red and Hayden is gone. She left without saying goodbye and now Liam has to pay for her vanilla milkshake, which is ridiculous because you’re not supposed to break up with the guy you used to call the love of your life while drinking a vanilla milkshake, especially if you don’t even intend to pay for it.

To be fair, maybe she did paid, but the waitress is lying to him just so he pays again and she keeps all the money. She saw Liam running to the bathroom in tears, she knows he’s not going to call Hayden and ask her about the milkshake just after he has been dumped, that would be embarrassing. He’ll just never know.

Liam sighs, walking out of the cafe, refusing to feel sad.

He _is_ thinking about all the places in Beacon Hills high enough to kill him on the impact if jumped from, but still, he’s not going to let Hayden’s awful timing ruin _his_ day. Today is the day, it still is. The one million dollar is going to be accredited on his account at any moment now. He can already feel the power of a True Alpha running through his veins. It’s his lucky day and all of this was just a distraction. Liam’s indefinite and vague feelings never lied to him before, it’s not happening now for the first time.

And it’s not.

Liam’s lucky day suddenly starts walking towards him from the other side of the road in the hot form of a time travelling Greek God wearing a tight leather jacket and white converse, ripped jeans showing views of tanned skin and two blue eyes bigger than anyone’s future.  

Liam always had a thing for leather jackets and he’s so ready to embrace all the luck now.

He’s also ready to see the hot guy walking past him waving to someone else because okay, feelings that never lied to him before and everything, but also _realism._

But then again, what is realism on a lucky day? Nothing, as the hot guy is proving right now by talking to him. God, his voice is hot as well.

“Look, I’m sorry, you don’t know me, I’m Theo, could you please help me? My dog got stuck there and I don’t know how to free him, I’m desperate, please.” Theo, that’s the apparition’s name, gestures frantically towards a little alley on the other side of the road and Liam instantly puts his most reassuring smile on his lips, because he’s just about to impress the hell out of this guy.  

“Hi Theo, nice too meet you. I’m Liam and today is my lucky day, I can help you with pretty much anything, really.”

Theo is too busy rushing towards the alley to pay him the attention his brilliant smiles and words would deserve, but Liam is not the least bit bothered by it: he’ll have plenty of time to enjoy Theo’s gratitude and his eyes on him just right after he heroically saved his dog from whatever happened to him. He can also call Deaton if the dog is hurt, so he’ll show Theo just how many friends ready to help him he has. He’ll think he’s so popular and brave and heroic. Liam just hopes Theo is okay with letting him decide the babies’ names because he promised Mason he will name at least one after him.

“He’s right there, see?” Theo points at the overflowing dumpsters at the end of the alley and his heart keeps doing weird things because he’s clearly so scared and worried about his dog and Liam feels a little bad he’s just there distracting himself with joyful thoughts of their future life together.

“Where?” He asks trying to focus on another heartbeat or yelps or whatever noises a trapped dog could emit, but there’s nothing beside the distant chatter of the main street. Holy shit, is not dead, is he? How is he supposed to impress Theo if his dog just died before he could heroically save him? Well maybe he can emotionally support him. Be the shoulder to cry on. This sounds like a plan. He’s going to wipe his tears away with his dic- “Here.” Theo says and then he stabs him in the stomach.

 

 

So, that just happened.

It’s his lucky day and there’s now a dagger planted in his guts. This is so unfair honestly.  

Liam is so disappointed by the world. You can’t even follow beautiful strangers in dark and narrow alleys without being stabbed nowadays. Ridiculous.

And as if having the blade of a dagger all the way up in his intestines wasn’t painful enough, Theo is now trying to twist it around while still holding the handle.

Liam just wanted to save his dog and have babies with him and Theo is literally trying to _gut_ him. That’s what you get for being nice and helpful to hot people.

A low growl rises in his throat as he grabs Theo’s wrist making sure to scratch his expensive leather jacket with the tip of his claws, just to make sure he knows he chose the wrong supernatural being to steal from. He flashes his eyes at him and lets his fangs show, waiting for the revelation to sink in before harshly shoving him away. _Yep, werewolves exist and you just stabbed one on his lucky day._ Theo’s back slams against the opposite wall of the alley and Liam lowers his eyes on the dagger still hanging from his stomach, collecting his wiliness to take it out while Theo shits himself from fear and runs away.

Liam is always too confident in his personal assumptions of how the events of life are supposed to go, which is why as he inhales deeply looking at all the blood staining his sweater, a tanned hand appears out of nowhere and pulls out the dagger just before aiming at his neck. It’s just thanks to his fastened reflexes that Liam is able to lift his arm and let the dagger sink in his left forearm instead of his throat and when being stabbed in a place instead of another one is a reason of joy maybe, just maybe, it’s not your lucky day at all.

He roars loudly, pained and enraged, and this time he looks Theo in the eyes and it’s when he catches his total lack of surprise or fear that it clicks: _hunter_.

Liam hasn’t seen or fight one in ages and that’s the only reason he managed to stab him twice. He thought he was dealing with a regular, unaware human, but now that he knows that _he_ knows, Liam is so going to kick his ass.

 

 

Theo stabbed him again.

Liam extracts the dagger from his thigh with an exasperated roar and then punches the other in the face, hard, gathering all the unfairness of life in his fist, Hayden and his fucking vanilla milkshake, Brett and his eight pack, hot people and their imaginaries dogs. He expects it to be an almost fatal punch but Theo doesn’t even faint, which is so rude.

He has at least the decency to look stunned as he slowly tries to reach for the bloody dagger in Liam’s hand and when Liam punches him again he just falls on his ass.

“You know what? This is the third fucking time you’ve stabbed me!” Liam snaps irritated, looking down at the defeated hunter at his feet. “You aren’t getting this knife back. It’s mine now.”

He waits for Theo – _is that even his real name? Does he actually have a dog?_ – to protest but he’s not even looking at him, too busy slowly getting back on his feet, staggering. His nose and lips are a bloody mess and Liam takes joy from it: the wound in his stomach is almost healed now, but the other two are still stinging like hell.

“You’re such a bad hunter anyway, _my dog got stuck,_ what kind of an excuse is that?” Liam snorts, carefully keeping track of Theo’s movements. He swears, if he manages to stab him again he’s going to _eat_ his head. “What is that even supposed to mean? Stuck where, in what, where could your dog possibly get stuck in an empty alley?”

Theo shrugs, smugness and sarcasm rolling off him in waves.

“Oh, I don’t know, you tell me, since you fell for it.”

Liam hates this guy.

“I didn’t fell for it _at all”_ He retorts because only an idiot would fell for it and he’s _so_ not an idiot. “I just followed you because you were hot and I thought it was my lucky day.”

To be fair, he still is hot. Which is why Liam still hasn’t clawed his eyes out. It’s so unfair honestly, how easy life can be for hot people: you go around stabbing werewolves and they can’t even feel comfortable disfiguring your face, just because it’s _pretty_. This is preferential treatment at its finest and Liam despises himself for it, but he despises Theo even more for causing him to be biased.

He’ll have to go and be super nice with the next ugly hunter he meets just to feel impartial again.

“So?” Theo mumbles almost bored, as if Liam was the one that asked for this stabby-meeting to happen.

“So what.” He glares at him, making sure his golden eyes keep his back well attached to the wall. He can’t just walk away after this. He’s going to pay it all, even for Hayden and the thief waitress. Liam is going to make Theo pay all the vanilla milkshakes in the world.

Theo snorts. “Oh, I don’t know, how do you enjoy spending your free time?”

“Well, first of all not getting stab-”

“Really? You wouldn’t recognise sarcasm even if I stabbed you with it.” Liam is _so_ going to punch that annoyed look out of his face. Of all the time someone tried to kill him, and those are more than he’s comfortable with, this is the first one he felt like being stabbed is a favour that has been done to him, like he should thank Theo for gifting him of his time. Liam is not going to thank this guy because he found a minute in his busy life to stab him, not a chance. Who knows what he does when he’s not stabbing people anyway, probably nothing important. He just stands there in front of the mirror styling his hair and stuff, he bets. “So, what are you going to do with my knife?”

It’s just now that Liam remembers he’s still holding the knife, still warm from his fresh blood.

The way he looks at it with surprise must be evident, because Theo’s brows are suddenly doing weird things and there’s an imperceptible smirk on his bloody lips, like now he’s the one in control. He’s so not. Liam needs to put him in his place right now.

“Listen, you giant hot bag of lies, if you stabbed me with sarcasm, I probably wouldn’t even notice it since your aim is so bad. _So_ bad, dude. Three times and not even one vital organ, what do they teach you at hunters school, uh? To stab Barbies?” Liam snorts, insulted. That’s how they train the people that could one day kill him and his friends? No respect, really. “They don’t even have genitals, let alone vital organs.”

Theo just blinks and doesn’t reply because what could he possibly say, Liam has always been a pro at dissing people and dolls.

“Second of all” Liam continues, just now realizing he never actually said _first of all_ , which could now ruin everything. If Theo tries to point that out, Liam is going to knock him out, that’s what he is going to do. He’ll just have no other choice, he’s doing too well to lose like that. “Second of all, what do you think I’m going to do with a knife? Cutting things! That’s what knives do. I’ll cut every type of thing. Steaks, bread, ceremonial ribbons...”

“You’re going to cut your bread with my dagger.” Theo repeats, voice blank.  

“I’m going to cut whatever I want with _my_ dagger okay?” Liam presses so hard on the _my_ that he literally spits, which is disgusting and embarrassing because you’re not supposed to spit with labials. “There’s my blood on it, look, that clearly makes it mine.”

Theo glances at the knife and then he shakes his head.

“This is so not how it works. And I repeat, _so?”_ He sounds sincerely frustrated now and Liam can’t believe his ears. _Hunters this days._

“So _what_.” He growls, showing him that he can be just as much frustrated.

“For fuck’s sake, are you going to kill me?” Theo blurts out looking super annoyed, like he waited in line for Liam to kill him all day and he’s now one of those contentious grandmas at the post office. He can do the exasperated face all he wants, Liam is not letting him surpass anyone else.

“Of course I’m going to kill you.” He snorts, crossing his arms and almost stabbing himself in the process.

Theo takes a step forward and Liam keeps his arms crossed even more tightly, a challenging look in his eyes, because he doesn’t need to have his arms to block whatever move Theo could be planning. He’s just going to headbutt him to death if he tries something.

Theo is smirking now, all smug again. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Maybe he can just bite his nose off. Then he’ll see how he’ll manage to go around looking all hot without a fucking nose.

Theo shrugs. “I don’t believe that for a moment.”

 Oh, now is Liam the lying one? But it’s not him who _invented_ a dog, isn’t he. Who does that anyway, that’s so evil, you don’t invent dogs, you find them and you love them and you protect them, but you never invent them.

“Then why did you ask me?”

Theo crosses his arms as well, still looking like he’s the one who has the upper hand. That’s what Liam is going to eat, his right hand. That’s more hygienic than the nose. “To mock you because your pack ‘don’t kill’ rule is stupid.”

“I don’t know what are you talking about.” Liam instantly denies. So he knows his pack, he didn’t just casually stumble into him. This is so frustrating, Liam puts so much hard work in his social medias following Mason’s advises and everything to look cool online and people just stalk him so they can attack him in dark alleys. Not rewarding at all. “I’m so going to kill you, dude.”

“Sure, totally going to kill me, I’m shaking.” Theo says particularly unimpressed.  “What are you waiting again?”

“Super villains always wait.” Liam smirks confidently. He wonders if he should go for the evil laugh as well, but he doesn’t want to overdo.  

Meanwhile Theo is suddenly looking victorious. What a weirdo. “Ah! So you admit you guys are the bad guys, with all your _mountain lions_ attacks and stuff.”

Yeah, so a few from his species are feral killers, so? Liam doesn’t see the aliens eliminating all the human race with this excuse, even though they could probably do it more efficiently and cleanly. Hunters has just to learn from aliens.   

“You fucking stabbed me for no reason!” Liam will never get tired of pointing this out. “I’m the good guy here!”

Theo smirks. “Though you were a super villain?”

“Super villains are misunderstood and complicated.” Doesn’t this guy watch T.V.? Why does Liam even need to explain this stuff to him? “You hunters on the other hand are just regular villains, all bad and no super at all. You all just want an excuse to kill something bigger than an animal. And I never attacked anyone by the way, so you can shove your mountain lions attacks right up your-”

“So far.”

Liam blinks. “What?”

“You never attacked anyone _so far_.” Theo points out and Liam rolls his eyes, immediately seeing where this is going. So annoying. Yes, let’s talk of how dangerous he is because he could _maybe_ at some point in his life attack someone, while the guy that literally just stabbed him right after introducing himself is standing there all judging, like he’s a civil, balanced person. “Wait until the next full moon, or the one after that, or the one after. You don’t seem very controlled.”

“I’m in total control.” Liam growls through gritted teeth. He _so_ want to bite his nose off. “ You still have your head, don’t you. And I have a mantra for when I’m losi-”

“I don’t care, you’re still dangerous and I’m still going to kill you.” Theo cuts him off, cold. His heart doesn’t even stutter, because he’s delusional just like that.

Liam snorts, incredulous. “Please, you don’t even know how to use a dagger. You couldn’t kill me even if I was already dead.”  

Theo shrugs, an obnoxious condescending smile on his lips. Liam never wanted to headbutt someone so bad in his life. “Whatever you say, little wolf, my point stands: if you don’t kill me right now, which you won’t because you’re Scott McCall’s beta, I’ll eventually take my dagger back and I’ll plant it right between your ey-”

Liam headbutts him and this time Theo has the decency to do the polite thing and pass out.

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

_“Hey Scott! It’s Liam, yes, hi, no no don’t worry, I don’t need anything, everything is fine, sure. We’re doing great. So, how are things in college? Good, good. Listen, hypothetically speaking, if I had an unconscious hunter that wants to kill me in my basement, what should I do with him? No, no, I said hypothetically, I’m just writing down notes and guidelines for possible scenarios, I don’t actually have...oh, okay, I see. I’ll call you  just for real scenarios then, sure. Yeah no, it’s fine, it was hypothetical I swear. So I shouldn’t kill him right? Hypothetically? Even if he’s an asshole and he stabbed me three tim-no no, it’s still hypothetical, I just pictured a very detailed scenario. All in my head, yes. Fine. Why should I worry about what to do in case things happen, right? I’ll just wait for them to actually happen and react by being completely unprepared, like we always do, because that worked so well in the past. No, I’m not mad. Okay, sure, go, do your thing. Yeah yeah, totally not mad, I promise. It’s better this way anyway, the sooner you learn who your real friends are the better. Okay, I’ll call you later. Bye Scott.”_

 

That was so pointless. Liam is going to become an Omega one day and fuck all the bullshit about lone wolves not making it, what’s the point of an Alpha if he cares more about his own education than helping his first bitten beta with hypothetical hunters that are actually totally real and tied up to a chair in front of him right now? It’s been twenty minutes and the asshole is still sleeping, he’s so dramatic. Liam has been stabbed and he didn’t even think about taking a nap. There is also a big bump swelling his way on Theo’s forehead now, with the sole purpose of trying to make Liam feel guilty, a purpose failed already since Liam just wishes for it to keep growing and growing until Theo’s neck breaks under the weight of it. That would serve him right. You can’t stab people with a broken neck, can you.

“Wake up.” He orders, glaring at Theo’s lowered eyelids.

He doesn’t. Liam focuses on his breathing, which sounds fine, just like his heartbeat, and proceeds to glare at him again. He’s being so dramatic, Liam wouldn’t be surprised if he was waiting for his true love to kiss him back to life, he bets he’s extra just like that. But he can wait forever, nobody is going to kiss him as long as he’s tied up in his basement.

Liam keeps glaring, because he wants for his glare to be the first thing Theo sees when he’ll finally stop overreacting, but his phone vibrating in his pocket interrupts and startles him.

He glares at his phone too, before he sees who it is. Oh yeah, he forgot he texted Mason earlier, just before dragging Theo’s body home. Mrs Jenkins totally saw him by the way, but she didn’t even blink, which offended Liam a lot because what the hell, has she a so low opinion of him that she _expects_ him to kidnap people? Mr Robins saw him too to be fair, but he doesn’t count because Liam always cuts his grass for free so he could murder an entire family in front of him and still be ‘the nice kid’.

 

 **_Received:_ ** _“Liam, do you remember when you assured Scott you were going to take care of everything and be the responsible one in his absence? ...How does the picture you just sent me featuring you holding a dagger over a dead guy in a dark alley fit into that?”_

 

Liam snorts. What is it with everyone being so dramatic today?

Time to take another selfie.

He holds his phone up in front of himself and bends a little, in order to include Theo tied up to the chair in the shot, then he smiles to the camera, because he always comes out terrible in pictures when he doesn’t. He types _“He’s alive”_ and sends the picture to Mason.   

 

 **Received:** _“Please tell me he likes it rough and you didn’t kidnap that super hot guy.”_

 

Liam rolls his eyes, because of course Mason would say something about Theo being hot straight away. He can’t really blame him since Mason always had a thing for pretty eyes and Theo’s eyes are the most beautiful thing Liam has ever seen in his life, all big and blue and confused as they gaze at him through the screen of his phone. Liam freezes, staring at the picture he sent Mason where Theo’s eyes are so unequivocally opened.

“Did you just take a selfie with me?”

And here he is, of course. Liam glared at him for the past twenty minutes and Theo decided to wake up in the five second he wasn’t supposed to. What a joke.

Liam glares at Theo again for good measure, trying to come up with a plausible explanation of why it wasn’t a selfie the one he just took. Luckily, Theo suddenly lowers his eyes on his wrists and precisely on the rope tied tight around them and gets distracted.

“What is this?” He mutters, failing in lifting his arms from the armrests of the chair. He frowns, looking at Liam. “Am I under kidnapping?

Liam nods. “You totally are.”

“Really. You kidnapped me.” He says and Liam is pretty sure you shouldn’t sound so sceptical about your interlocutor’s kidnapping abilities when you’re literally tied up to a chair in his basement. This is some level pro kidnapping right there and Liam did that all on his own and without premeditation. He could kidnap the Pope if he actually committed to.  

“In self defence.” He specifies anyway, because he’s still the good guy here, he only kidnaps hot stabbing people and that’s it. The Pope can take a sigh of relief. 

“Kidnapping in self defence is not a thing” Theo points out because he’s pedant just like that.   

Liam grins. “Say that to the chair you’re tied up to.” Take that, asshole.  

Theo doesn’t even blink. “I’m not talking to a chair.”  

“So you can’t talk to a chair but I’m supposed to save a dog that doesn’t even exist, how convenient.” He snorts and Theo smells confused for awhile before shaking his head.   

“Whatever, so you kidnapped me, fine. What now.” He raises his brows expectant, like Liam invited him for a party and he’s waiting for being entertained. Liam is sure this is not how kidnappings work. “Do you even have a plan or...?”

“I have a plan.” Liam lies immediately because he’d love to have a plan.

Then as he looks at Theo staring at him he instantly has a flashback of that horror movie with the guy kidnapping hot people and cutting their faces off to use them as masks. Liam already has a face and he wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing Theo’s, but the flashback was disturbingly vivid.

“I’m waiting.” Theo is still staring, looking bored again, and Liam is so not going to wear his face, ever. He would hate to go around looking like a smug asshole all the time.  

“I’m not going to tell _you_ the plan, asshole.” He snorts. “You tried to kill me.”

“I succeeded.” Theo shrugs and his heart doesn’t miss a beat as he speaks.

Liam frowns. “What?”

“I _did_ kill you.” He says, firm, and once again his heart confirms he’s telling the truth. He killed him. Theo killed him and this means Liam is dead, because that’s what happen when people kill you, you die. _Holy shit_. He’s dead. He died and he didn’t even noticed, just like it always happen in those dramatic movies. It was his lucky day and he died. His life sucked and so the day he died was his lucky day, that’s what happened. Liam is so pissed now. Mason always finds money on the ground on his lucky days and that’s what Liam finds, death. Fuck this. And as if being dead wasn’t enough, the asshole who killed him is still talking. “Look, you still haven’t healed completely because of the particular type of wolfsbane my knife was impregnated with.” Liam lifts his shirt up just enough to reveal the still visible cut on his stomach. It’s barely opened, almost just a scratch, but it’s there and it shouldn’t, because it’s been twenty minutes already. “It’s a rare one, you don’t notice it at first because the effects are so much slower, but just as mortal.” Theo continues, voice light-hearted, as Liam keeps staring in horror at his wound. “Now can you free me so I don’t get stuck in here with your body?”

Liam gasps in shock before pouring out his indignation on Theo.

“Oh my god, you asshole, you poisoned me! I can’t believ- _wolfsbane!_ That’s cheating, you fricking coward!”

“It’s not cheating, it’s being smart. You and your friends are the ones cheating, with the super strength and the claws and...are you fainting?”

Liam _so_ feels like is fainting.

“I’m not.” He lies as his sight dulls and he suddenly becomes very aware of something wrong in his body. “I’m feeling great. It’s just suggestion. I was okay before you said you used wolfsbane. It’s called suggestion.”

“It’s called wolfsbane, a very specific plant root mortal for your species.” Theo retorts and Liam growls.

“Shut up you asshole! I’m going to wear your face as a carnival mask!” Theo looks more confused than intimidated, but Liam has not time for that. He needs to get the poison out of his system immediately. “Stop distracting me, how do I get rid of it? Do I burn it? I burn it, yeah, I’m going to burn it. You wait here, I’m going to set your hair on fire after I’m done. ”

 

 

***

 

Liam has been stabbed three times in a row and somehow that still wasn’t the most painful moment in his day, because he just literally burned his wounds open with a fricking lighter. He could have gone to Deaton who probably owns a flame thrower, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving Theo there all alone with no guards, just like he didn’t like the idea of having to explain to Deaton what exactly happened and having Scott calling him all worried five minutes later. He didn’t like the idea of a flame thrower being used on him too, to be fair.

He’s glaring so much at Theo right now that he kinda expects him to just dissolve under his burning eyes, but he just stares back, almost relaxed.

“You missed one.” He says after awhile and Liam frowns. What is he playing now?

“What?”

“The little scratch on your left forearm.” Theo nods at it with his head. “It’s infected too.”

Liam lowers his eyes, immediately spotting it. It doesn’t hurt and it’s barely visible, but it’s still not healing. “Oh. Yeah. Thanks, I guess.”

He takes care of it too as Theo shrugs uninterested. “I just told you so you won’t set my hair on fire.”

Liam snorts. “I wasn’t actually going to set your hair on fire you idiot, I like your hair.” He admits, because the pain is making him honest.

Theo smirks. “Thanks, I like it too.”

Liam smiles, pleased. “Thank you.”

“For what, we’re talking about _my_ hair.”

Liam frowns, indignation filling his veins. “Wait, what? I thought you were complimenting me back. You’re such an asshole, dude.”

“I wouldn’t compliment your hair, your hair is ridiculous.” Theo says and he _wants_ Liam to set him on fire, there’s no other explanation. He wonders how much time it will take to turn him into ashes using just a lighter. “It looks like something exploded on your head.”

“Are you kidding me? Let’s see how your hair look after you have being stabbed multiple times.”

“You can’t blame everything wrong with your life on the fact that I stabbed you, you know.” Theo rolls his eyes because _buu-hu_ , how difficult his life must be, with his perfect hair and his perfectly never stabbed stomach. “I didn’t stab your hair and I didn’t stabbed your barber. I didn’t stab your grades, I-”

“My grades are _fine_.” Liam snarls because math is not really important anyway.

“I didn’t stab your broom, but we’re still breathing more dust than oxygen down here, are we. I didn’t s-”

“Well, fuck you.” Liam snaps. This is ridiculous. He can’t control what his hair do on their free time on his head and he doesn’t have to justify himself with this guy who probably made a pact with the devil to make his look so in order and perfect. “Your hair are not that cool anyway.” He shrugs derisive, walking closer to his prisoner. Nice Liam has made his course. The time for vengeance has come. “Especially” He adds slowly, just before his hands sprint towards Theo’s head, deadly. He squirms and tries to escape, producing funny sounds going from angry to begging, but Liam is merciless and keeps ruffling his hair until they look like something exploded on his head too.   “ _Now.”_ Liam concludes satisfied, bringing back his hands along his sides and admiring his work.

Theo is throwing daggers from his eyes but Liam’s satisfaction starts cracking soon: why does he look even more hot now, with his hair all messy and soft like he just woke up after a rough night of sex. This is _so_ not fair. 

He clears his voice, turning on his back and walking to a bookcase in the corner, because it’s suddenly of vital importance to invert the disposition of two culinary books. Yes, this way is so much better. Good thing he was there to save the day.

 “Then what would you compliment.” Liam asks shrugging and looking uninterested as he turns back to Theo, who looks very confused about his question. Liam huffs, impatient. This guy is so slow, god. “You said you wouldn’t compliment my hair, so what would you compliment.”

“Well, _mine_.” Theo’s faces silently adds ‘obviously’ and Liam silently wants him dead.

“Oh my god, no, I mean about _me._ ”

Theo blinks, astonished.

“Oh. Well, you’re difficult to kill.” He says after awhile and Liam thinks about it. It could count as a compliment, he considers. It’s definitely a quality and it’s definitely better than being an easy kill, especially when people tries to kill you on a normal basis. 

“Thanks.” He nods, discreetly satisfied.

“You’re welcome.” Theo replies very politely and then the room fall into silence because Liam still hasn’t decide what he’s supposed to do now or how you even turn a person’s face into a mask. Does he needs to add laces on it or can he just glue it on himself? Theo is still staring at him, thoughtful, and Liam hopes he’s not thinking what _he_ is thinking. Nobody is stealing his face. “Also, your eyes are kinda pretty. Can you untie me now?”

Liam gasps, taken aback, instantly hoping he could have a mirror in front of him right now to check his eyes and see them on this new light of _kinda pretty,_ investigating what makes them so. Is it the colour, does Theo have a thing for light blue eyes, or is it the eyelashes, does he have pretty eyelashes? How pretty eyelashes even look like? Liam has no idea.

Theo is gazing at him expectantly and Liam defensively crosses his arms on his chest.

“I’m not freeing you just because you said my eyes are pretty.”

“No” Theo unexpectedly agrees. “You’re freeing me because you’re not going to kill me and keeping a prisoner is too much work.”

He kinda has a point, Liam has to admit. He couldn’t even keep those cactus Mason gifted him last year because he was supposed to do so _many_ things for not killing them apparently. He doesn’t want to spend his time watering Theo and moving his chair in front of the window so he can get all the sunlight he needs to grow. Not to mention how much his parents will freak out if they get down in the basement to do laundry and found a guy tied up to a chair. They always overreact.   

“Corey has a dark side.” Liam suddenly remembers: he doesn’t like milk chocolate or sugary snacks, so he must be evil, no matter what Mason says to defend him. “I think he would enjoy having a prisoner to torture. I’ll just give you to him.”

“I have class tomorrow, come on.” Theo sighs heavily, pulling his ropes.  

Liam glances at him surprised.

“You have class? You just tried to kill me and you...how old are you?”

“Eighteen. How old are you?”

“Seventeen.” Liam is so confused. Can’t they at least let them finish school before sending them after him? Will he have to watch his back from infants too soon? Well, he already does that to be honest. Infants are dangerous, always full of poop or puke ready to be released on you at any time. “Why did you try to kill me?”

“Because you’re a werewolf.” Theo answers simply. “And I’m a hunter.”

“Since when?”

“If you don’t remember when you were bitten that’s your probl-”

“No, since when you’re a hunter.”

“Years.” Theo says smug and Liam doesn’t even need to listen to his heartbeat to know this is bullshit. His eyes must be eloquent enough because he quickly adds. “Two months.”

“And how many werewolf have you killed?” He asks sceptical. He’s not even an alpha and Theo ended up tied up in his basement after he tried to kill him, Liam can’t imagine him actually succeeding in killing a lot of werewolf. 

“Fifteen.” Theo smirks all proud as his heart misses so many beats he might as well be dead right now.

“It’s a lie, I can hear it.” Liam remembers him. Don’t they teach new hunters anything these days? This is ridiculous, he shouldn’t have to put up with such incompetence. He’s so going to write a complaint to the National Hunters Organization later. They need to do some selection on their aspiring hunters or something, this is a waste of time for everyone involved.  “So, how many?”

Theo sighs, irritated. “Fine, none.”

“That’s shocking, I mean, you’re so good at this.” Liam brings his hand on his heart, faking surprise.

Theo huffs, annoyed. “You were my first mission, okay?”

“Oh, so in my lucky day I just happen to be someone’s first designated victim, that’s great.” Liam mutters and Theo frowns.

“Today is your lucky day?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” Liam confirms.

Theo looks perplexed. “I stabbed you three times and it’s still your lucky day, that’s what you’re saying.”

“Yes.”Liam nods, because he can repeat it with his judging tone as much as he wants, facts don’t change and facts say that his morning feelings are never wrong, except that time with the wendigo or that other time with the omega. Or the time...

“So what happened that made today so lucky that it still is even after you were almost killed?” Theo interrupts his thoughts, looking genuinely interested. But he looked genuinely interested in having a dog as well and guess what.

“Almost killed in your dreams.” He points out, because he’s alive and well, thank you very much. “And it’s not what happened, it’s what _about_ to happen.”

“What’s about to happen?” Theo asks confused.

“I don’t know.” Liam instantly admits, because he has no idea. “But something great. Because it’s my lucky day.”

Theo furrows his brows.

“I don’t understand.”

Liam shrugs. “That makes one of you.”

“What?”

“Because _I_ understand.”

Theo stares at him and Liam holds his gaze lifting his chin up and hiding very well the fact that he doesn’t understand either. What were they even talking about? Are Theo’s eyes actually blue or green? They look green now. This is suspicious.

“Just untie me, come on.” Theo sighs, suddenly speaking with a deep voice all wise and mature, like Liam is some little kid that kidnapped him for fun. “I won’t kill you in your lucky day, I promise. I wouldn’t have stabbed you if you told me.”

“I actually told you, you know.” Liam points out, bitter. “It’s literally the first thing I told you, _I’m Liam and this is my lucky day_ , and you proceeded to stab me anyway.”

“Yes, because I didn’t know you were so easily offended, the others said you guys just usually toss us around and then leave if you defeat us, nobody talked about kidnapping.” Oh, here it is again, the polemic old lady at the post office voice.   

“Yeah well, I’m sorry my reaction to being stabbed disappoints you, but you’ve been lied to.” How does it feel, mh? Not good, does it. Liam was so ready to save and pet that dog. “We actually kidnap and torture people all the time. _All the time._ ”

Theo snorts sceptical. “Oh, really.”

“Really. I wake up and I don’t even have time for breakfast because I’m already late on my kidnapping schedule.”

“Where are your instruments of torture then?” Theo asks and Liam looks around, nervous. Where are his instruments of torture?

“That’s one.” He eventually says pointing at a lamp on the other side of the basement.

“That’s a lamp.” Theo observes, because this is how he was able to stab him, nothing goes past him.

“That’s what they all say right before they start screaming.” Liam replies impassive, before having a brilliant idea and theatrically baring his claws. “And this is another one.” He murmurs menacing, looking at his sharp claws and moving them slowly. Damn, it was so perfect and intimidating. If only he thought about doing that _before_ he pointed at the stupid lamp.

Theo doesn’t even flinch. “Yeah no, I’m curious about the lamp, can I be tortured with that?”

“You don’t pick what to be tortured with, okay? It’s not a game.” Liam growls frustrated. Why did he even think about the lamp while he has fangs and claws anyway? He ruined everything. Theo is never going to take him seriously now.   

“You say that just because you don’t know how to inflict me pain with a lamp.” Theo grins and Liam’s mind is immediately flooded by vivid images of him inflicting Theo a lot of pain with his mom’s lamp. “And you can’t hit me with it, because you would break it and it would prove that you never used it to torture someone before.” Fuck this, what is he, a mind reader?

“You’re going to regret asking for the lamp.” Liam snarls, indignant. Theo thinks he’s being so smart right now, but he’ll show him. He can turn just anything into a torture instrument if he wants to. “Just wait and see. I’m going to torture the hell out of you.”

He angrily stomps towards the lamp and he grabs it with his left hand, lifting it and bringing it in front of Theo, who stares expectantly. Then, as soon as he lowers his guard by blinking, Liam put it on his foot, discharging its weight mostly on his shoe and keeping it in balance with just one finger.

Theo stares at his foot and then at Liam.

“What the hell are you doing.”

“Oh, does it hurt?” Liam mocks him, triumphant. “Is it crushing you? Well, I’m sorry, but-”

“It’s a plastic lamp, Liam. It’s not even heavy.”

Liam blinks, because that’s his name on Theo’s lips. So weird. Does it always sound like that? He doesn’t think so. “How do you know my name, you stalker?”

Theo narrows his eyebrows. “Because it’s the first thing you said to me? _I’m Liam and this is my lucky day_?”

“Oh, right.” Liam concedes. He always has an answer for everything, doesn’t he. But Liam will show him. Enough talking. “Well, okay then. You wanted this. We’ll do it for real now.”

He puts the base of the lamp back on the floor and he makes sure  the plug is attached to the socket, which is not, so he does it.

Theo looks at him confused. “What are you-”

“Keep your begging to yourself, I won’t stop.” Liam waves him off, pointing the lamp right towards his face and putting his index on the switch. “You asked for it.”

It’s a little _click_ and then the light goes on. Theo closes his eyes a little, clearly overwhelmed by the light pointed in his eyes.

“That’s it?” He asks after awhile, not sounding in agony at all.

It kinda is it.

“Keep talking and I’m going to select the maximum intensity.” Liam warns him, his finger dangerously close to the button. “And stop laughing!” He growls irritated because what’s up with the giggles? That’s not supposed to happen when you torture someone.

“Yeah well, stop threatening me with a lamp then!” Theo protests as he keeps chuckling like this was the funniest shit ever and not a war. They’re at _war_ for god’s sake and he’s his war prisoner!   

“Fine” Liam sighs, turning off the lamp, because not even torture is taken serious these days apparently. What the world has come to. “Next time don’t play with fire if you can’t handle a lamp.”

Theo shakes his head snickering some more and he gives Liam a strange look, like he just saw him for the first time. What a weirdo.  

 

 

***

 

“Can you order pizza?”

Liam is busy glaring at Theo and trying to come up with a solution to him being there when the other distracts him from his thoughts. “What?”

“If you’re going to force me to stay for dinner, can you at least order pizza? I’d like some.” Theo explains simply, like it’s a normal thing to do, stabbing people and then asking them to buy you dinner. This guy has no manners, really.

“When exactly did I invite you for dinner?”

“When you tied me up to a chair in your house. Now feed your guest please.”

“You’re not my guest, you stabbed m-”

“Oh god, I was _there_ , I know it” Theo rolls his eyes, exasperated. “Stop repeating it, it seems like you were never stabbed before.”

“For your information, I wasn’t.” Liam mutters offended, because what does he have, the face of a baby gang fighter or something? “Not three times in a row anyway.”

“Well, then it was a new experience for you.” Theo shrugs, not showing any kind of remorse. “New experiences are a good thing, that’s why it was your lucky day. You’re welcome. I’ll take a pepperoni pizza by the way.”

“Yes, of course you’ll take pepperoni pizza, why wouldn’t you.” Liam snorts. “You’re so banal and predictable.”

“That’s how you predicted my knife in your stomach so well?”

“Shut up or I’ll feed you pineapple pizza.”

Theo has the decency to take at least that threat serious and he finally shuts up. For two seconds.

“A diet coke too, thanks.”

“No diet cokes enters my house.” Liam makes it clear because there is a limit to everything. “You‘ll take a salad if you want to be all healthy and shit. Do you want a salad on your pizza?”

Theo frowns. “No.”

“Then shut up.” Liam snaps and walks to the door. He stops with his hand on the handle, hesitant. “Are you going to try to escape while I talk to the pizza delivery man?”

He focuses on Theo’s heartbeat, but he just shrugs.

“Probably. But I didn’t ask pizza for that, I just really love pizza.”

Liam stares at him some more, suspicious, and then he sighs, pulling the door open.

“Whatever. I’ll just eat you if you run.”

He closes the door behind his back, but he still hears Theo’s answer.

“Fine by me.”

Yep, definitely a weirdo.

 

 

***

 

_“Hey Mason, what is it?”_

_“What do you mean what is it? You can’t just send me pictures of you kidnapping people and then disappear, I was ready to come over if you didn’t answer. What are you doing now?”_

_“I’m waiting for pizza.”_

_“No, I mean what are you doing with the guy you kidnapped.”_

_“He’s waiting for pizza too.”_

_“He’s what?”_

_“Don’t worry, I didn’t let him order his stupid diet coke.”_

_“That’s so not what I’m worried abou-”_

_“It’s the doorbell, Mase, I have to leave you. I’ll call you later to let you know how the pizza was, I never tried this pizzeria yet.”_

_“Li-”_

 

Liam hangs up just before opening the door. The strong paradisiacal scent of cheese – because that’s what good people take on their pizza, cheese, all type of them – hits him strongly as the guy handles him two boxes and asks for money right away, not even trying to pretend he gives people pizza to see them happy.   

“So, if someone really hot stabbed you, what would you do?” Liam asks as he searches his pockets for coins. Casual conversations are important to show people you’re polite and friendly, his mother taught him that.

The guy looks like he wants his pizza back now. “I don’t know, I’d call an ambulance? And the police?”

“Yeah, clearly.” Liam agrees, handing him the money. “Because look is not everything in life. You don’t just get past attempted murder because of a pretty face. And eyes. And all the rest.” He pats the man on the shoulder, respectfully. “You’re _so_ right. And wise. You should do that as a job, being wise and all.”

 “Good evening sir.”

 

 

***

 

Liam hasn’t decided yet if he wants to tell Theo that his face is all covered in tomatoes sauce now.

A part of him doesn’t, because it serves him right looking so ridiculous, the other wants to tell him and mocks him because now that both of his hands are tied up again he couldn’t clean himself even if he wanted to.

But as often happens to him, when he opens his mouth he ends up saying a total different thing.

“Why did you tell me about the wolfsbane?”

Theo glances at him surprised, before scanning his eyes through the room, as if he was looking for the answer in Liam’s mom culinary books. He stays quiet for so long that Liam wonders if he’ll have to use the lamp on him again, but eventually he shrugs.

“You talked too much.”

“What?”

“You talked too much.” Theo repeats as if this clarified things. What does he mean he talked too much? It’s not something people usually _don’t_ say about Liam, but if nothing, they threaten to kill him for it, not the other way around.

“Did I talk you out of killing me?” He tries. “With my reasonable explanation that I never attacked a human be-”

Theo shakes his head. “Not that, in general. I mean, you were not supposed to talk that much, saying all those weird stuff. You were supposed to growl and roar and that’s it, my first kill.” Liam is very confused by this imaginary world Theo lives in where he’s capable of stabbing werewolves without being kidnapped in return, but he still tries to follow him, because his heartbeat is steady as he speaks. “I don’t need to remember that my first werewolf kill wanted to cut ribbons and bread with my dagger. That’s anticlimactic.”

Liam doesn’t know what’s anticlimactic about that because ribbons are great and what’s really anticlimactic is being stabbed by who you had just picked as the future father of your children, but point of views are a thing, so.

“Well, probably” He starts slowly, trying to find the logic in it. “But you’re a lying little shit, you could have just said that I _did_ roared and that was it. You lied about the dog, why couldn’t you lie about that too?” Liam shakes his head, hit by the inspiration. God, he’s so smart, he could be a detective if the teacher career went wrong. “No, I’ll tell you what, it wasn’t because it was anticlimactic, me talking bothered you because it showed that I’m just like you and you don’t like the idea of killing another human being.”

And there you have it. Detective Dunbar at it once again.

“You’re not human.” Theo points out after a little silence, clearly avoiding the truth he’s just been illuminated with.  

“No, but I talk a lot and so I still am.”

“That doesn’t make an-”

“Shut up, you basically admitted it.” Liam snorts, walking towards him and pulling out his claws. The ropes hit the floor, chopped. “Now move, you can go. I mean, you _have_ to go, I’m so not inviting you for the night, dude.”

Theo doesn’t move, looking astonished at his now free wrists. “What?”

“You’re not dangerous” Liam explains and it sounds like an insult, which is good because Theo still deserves to be insulted. “First of all, you suck with the dagger and second of all, werewolves just have to talk to you and you can’t kill them anymore apparently, you’re basically harmless, they just have to scream _my favourite colour is blue_ or _I like painting_ and bam, you’re done.”

Theo looks incredibly insulted by this.

“I just hesitated okay! And I was tied in your basement, who knows how long until someone would have found me if you just died there for the wolfsb-”

“Do you want to be freed or not.” Liam cuts him off, eyeing eloquently at the ropes on the ground. He vigorously hopes Theo says yes because he doesn’t actually have others intact ropes he can use and he _needs_ the laces of his shoes.

Theo stands up, disdainfully pushing the chair back with his thighs. “Yes, but I’m still an hunter, don’t get strange ideas.” He says with a challenging look in his eyes. His heart is beating fast and Liam can’t really tell if he’s lying or not. “I’m walking out of that door in the vest of an hunter.”

He walks past him and Liam’s eyes automatically follow him. Leather jacket and white converse, is that the official hunter uniform now? Are all of them going to try and kill him and his pack in those thigh black jeans? Liam hopes so.  

“Can I have my dagger back.”

Theo stopped at the door, that’s why Liam was still able to admire his ass, he realizes.

“No.”  

“So you’re stealing it from me.” Theo observes quiet, glancing back at him.

“I’m not stealing  shit, you gave it to me, three times.” Liam grumbles, because fuck that, if something _enters_ his body, than it becomes his, end of the story. “Now go and if I’ll ever see you again I promise I’ll stab you with my fangs.”

“Bite is the word you’re looking for.” What a prig.

“Bite my dick!” Liam snaps irritated. He’s not going to let incompetent hunters correct him on his threats in his own house.

Theo smirks, opening the door and turning back one last time. “I’m pretty good, you wouldn’t feel the teeth, trust me.”

Liam blinks astonished, because _what the fuck_ , but Theo is already gone.  

 

 

***

 

_“Hello? Hi Scott, how...oh. Well, no, it was, yes, hypothetical, Mason just enjoys himself with Photoshop lately, yes, it wasn’t even a real guy, didn’t you see his eyes? Who has eyes of that colour in real lif-oh, you know him? You two went to school together? That’s weird, I don’t know what to tell you. Never heard of a Theo in my life. Mason was just helping me illustrating the hypothetical scenarios I talked to you about and he got so excited that he wanted to test if they could look real, so...no that’s bullshit, you can’t hear my heartbeat through the phone, I don’t believe you for a secon-okay, fine, goodnight Scott. Yes, I let him go, 'night.”_

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

“Hey Liam, could you hand me a tissue, please?”

Liam can’t believe his ears. _The nerve, the nerve_! Mason is just shameless, asking him that.

“Don’t talk to me, traitor.” He mutters, cold like his lonely heart now that he doesn’t have friends to warm it anymore. So that’s how it feels to have no one in the whole universe. Nobody to care for, nobody that cares for you. Just you and an infinite, silent desert all around.

“Come on, quick, this ice-cream is dripping everywhere.”

Quick, like Mason’s stabby fingers were to add more symbolic back stabbing to the physical stomach stabbing Liam had already endured.

“That’s not ice cream, that’s what left of our friendship _melting_ in your traitorous hands.”

Liam has been accused of being petty and melodramatic and this just slashed his already wounded heart even more. He’s been stabbed and he can’t even bleed out without being accused of overreacting, how ironic. It’s _so_ not overreacting, it’s just what people do when you stab them, they bleed and they die, and Mason needs to grow up and learn to live with the consequences of his actions, even when the consequence is the cold lifeless body of his once best friend.  

“Corey, please-”                                          

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah sure. Help your boyfriend, Corey. Who knows how many people he’s sending naked pictures of himself to. Or of you. Since your boyfriend _loves_ sending around others people’s pictures without their consent, as we all know.”

What Mason did, sending Scott that confidential picture Liam naively shared with him, didn’t just ruined their secular friendship, it also just broke the whole pack. Liam is never going to be able to look his Alpha in the eyes again, not now that he knows that he and Mason _text_. About stuff. Private stuff too. Because that’s how fucked up the world actually is, you can’t even send the person you trust most in the world a picture of yourself kidnapping someone without them alerting other people. Liam feels sick just thinking about it.

“For fuck’s sake Liam, I told you I’m sorry.”

 “And I told you to never speak to me again.”

“Yes, two minutes before asking me two dollars for the ice-cream.”

“You could have given them to me in silence! That’s what a true friend would have done! Not that you would know, of course.”

Who knows what else Mason shared with Scott behind his back. Did he told him about that time when Liam thought he gained weight? Does Scott walks around thinking Liam reputes him fat now? That’s so not true! His abs are stunning. What if Mason reported him Liam’s theory about Scott being obsessed with brunettes and this being creepy and related to the girl that died too? That’s actually true, but Scott can’t never know Liam said it.

“You’re my best friend Liam, I won’t stop talking to you because you’re offended I tried to save you from going to prison.”

Liam snorts. “Oh is that what you were trying to do? After years of sending me to prison every goddamn chance you had now you suddenly want to keep me out of it, how convenient.”

 “We talked about this, Monopoly is not real life” Mason sighs.

“Again, how convenient. You would be homeless if it was. And I would be so rich that-”

“So, what Scott said about this hunter guy?”

Liam doesn’t like to be interrupted, but Corey looks genuinely interested and he _did_ convinced Mason to pay for Liam’s ice-cream without blackmailing him into forgiving him first, so there’s that.

Liam shrugs. “Nothing. They went to school together when they were kids apparently. He should have finished already, but something happened some years ago and he lost a year.”

“What happened?”

“How would I know?” Liam asks perplexed. You kidnap someone _one time_ and suddenly everyone expects you to know everything about them. And Liam kinda does actually, because ordering a diet coke with your pizza tells everything there is to know about your personality. “He was probably busy stabbing people, the fucker. He was evil even when he was a puppy, I bet. I hope he’s having a terrible day wherever he is.”

“I still think you should have called the police honestly. He _did_ stabbed you after all” Mason says, struggling against his ice-cream that’s dripping all over his jeans. It’s a mess, but Liam has no sympathy for him and for slow eaters in general: what kind of person takes his time with delicious ice-creams? Liam finished his five minutes ago and he hates seeing Mason eating one in front of him right now. He _so_ wants another one.

“Sure, that would have sounded great _. Hello, I’m in my basement with a stranger who assaulted me. He’s tied up to a chair now and covered in bruises and he will probably claim I kidnapped him, while of my stab wounds there’s no sign left because I healed super fast, but I promise, he’s the bad guy._ Yeah, you’re totally saving me from jail Mason. So loyal of you.”

“I mean _before_ you kidnapped him. You know, _instead_ of kidnapping him actually” Mason points out because everyone knows how to react to an assault better than Liam apparently. But the truth is, Mason is human and he would have just _died_ in his place, so Liam is not accepting advises from him. Dead man talking, really. “Also, it’s not like the Sheriff doesn’t know about the supernatural, so...”

“Whatever, he’s not dangerous. He makes a ridiculous hunter” Liam shrugs dismissive. “And you’re the one who told me that I can’t disturb the police for vapid reasons.”

“You wanted to have Brett arrested because he cheated on Monopoly.”

“We were playing with _real_ money!” Liam snaps vehement. “If I can’t call the police when I get robbed then being stabbed is not a good enough reason either. My stomach heals, you know, my wallet on the other hand...”

“You would totally call the police if Brett stabbed you.”

“Fuck yes I would” Liam confirms between his teeth, bitter. What does Hayden even sees in Brett is beyond him, really. He’s all cunning and smart and he has an eight pack and he’s Capitan of Lacrosse team and he’s rich and popular and sometimes funny, sure, but _beside_ that? “Brett is so much more dangerous than the hot hunter.”

“Still, you should have blinded him.” Corey comments while happily taking a bite from his strawberry ice pop.

Liam is not sure what disturbs him more, what he just said or the fact that he _bites_ ice pops. He doesn’t know how Mason trusts him near his dick honestly.

“What do you mean _blind_ him.”

“The hunter, now he knows where you live. You should have taken his eyes out with your claws before letting him go.” Corey shrugs like it’s the most obvious thing ever. How could Liam not think of that, really.

“Go where, to his funeral?”

“Corey, honey, stop. We talked about this. No fantasies about mutilating people aloud” Mason, clearly realizing he’s dating a psychopath, decides to intervene. “ _But_ , he does have a point, Liam. You could have at least knocked him out and drop him in a ditch far away from where you live.”

“Yeah, or I could have put a blindfold on his eyes.” Liam suggests, brows raised. “You know, not being an utter psychopath.”

“Yeah, that would have worked too.” Mason convenes. “Why didn’t you do that?”

“I don’t know, okay, I was living the moment. It was my lucky day and then all of a sudden Hayden was breaking up with me and then this hot guy was stabbin-”

“Wait what? Hayden broke up with you?”

Mason and Corey are both looking at Liam astonished now.

“Oh yeah, didn’t I tell you?”

Mason frowns. “No, you didn’t.”

“Well, she did.” Liam shrugs, because that’s not the point. “Anyway, there was this hot guy stabbing me and then he was all tied up and it happened so fast, so excuse me if I wasn’t flooded with brilliant ideas at the moment.”   

“I think trying to torture me with a lamp was pretty brilliant.”

Liam is so glad he didn’t have anything to eat anymore because he would have spit it all over his friends otherwise and Mason has been very clear about it, there’s a limit of three times in which you can cover someone with things that were once in your mouth before you’re not best friends anymore. His eyes still fall out from his orbits and hit the table with a funny wet _plop_ as he turns to his left only to find out that Theo’s voice is not just a voice but it accompanies itself with a corporeal body, a disgracefully hot one in fact, today wrapped in a tight blue shirt and a gray pair of sweatpants that for some reason offend Liam on a personal level. He still has that bruise on his forehead where Liam hit him and he’s smirking all smug and relaxed like he’s not about to stab Liam again.

“ _I swear to God,_ I’m going to kill you for real this time” Liam growls, glaring fire. This guy really has a nerve showing up like this after yesterday. Showing up in those sweatpants, with his ass like a sculpture slowly emerging from the marble block with each chisel stroke. Liam will make him regret his choice of clothing.

“Easy there wolf, I’m not here to kill you” Theo defensively holds one hand in front of him while still looking amused and his heart says that he’s not technically lying, but his ass clearly says otherwise. He’s probably trying to distract Liam just so he can stab him better later, the asshole, but little did he know that Liam wasn’t alone this time and he’s in for a surprise, because while Liam’s eyes are in fact struggling against the irrepressible siren singing that Theo’s body represents, Mason and Corey are not so easily corruptible. They have the power of an healthy relationship and a regular sexual life on their side and while Liam was busy silently defending himself from Theo’s sweatpants attack, they quickly grabbed some weapons.

Liam is not totally sure what damage could be done with the stick of an ice-pop to be honest, but Corey is holding his with such hatred that he doesn’t doubt for a second that it must be _a lot_.

“Oh yeah? What do you want then?” Liam asks sceptical, not even standing from his chair. _This is how little of a threat you are, dickhead,_ he’s silently communicating. _Then why do you need those armed security guards, you liar?_ Theo equally silently retorts with his eyes, raising his brows towards Corey and Mason. _I don’t_ , Liam replies still keeping his mouth shut, and then he turns to his friends to let them know as well but they are so bad at reading what his eyes are trying to say and in fact they just keep staring at him, even when Liam starts winking suggestively.

“Do you have something in your eye?” Mason asks perplexed after awhile and Liam sighs frustrated. So much for real friends not needing words to understand each other.

“Just the disappointment I feel for you” Liam explains and Mason nods comprehensive. “It’s blinding me. Anyway, can you guys leave me and the dickhead alone for a minute? I need to extort him his evil plans and he won’t talk in front of you.”

“I don’t have ev-”

“I _just_ said you won’t talk in front of them, will you shut up you asshole?”

It’s eleven in the morning and Liam is so tired of this day already. Not every day can be his lucky day after all. And of that his stomach is grateful.

“Okay, we’ll go to the park then.” Mason agrees slowly, not making a move to actually stand up and not leaving the spoon he’s holding with strength. Liam would point out that he can’t take it away from the cafe, but he doesn’t particularly feels like saving his traitorous best friend from prison right now. “See you later. And by this,” Mason’s eyes suddenly switch on Theo, a warning look on his face. “I mean, see you _later_. As in _unharmed._ As in _not stabbed._ Does everyone at this table understand this? Good, then we’ll go.” This time he actually stands up and Corey does the same, but they’re still glaring at Theo. Liam has planned to stay mad with Mason for at least another day, just so he’ll bring him free pizza and ice-cream and all the nice things Mason does when he wants to be forgiven for his gossip fetish, but he can’t deny he’s almost moved by his friend’s protectiveness right now. “I’ll probably call Scott as we walk, just to let him know what everyone is doing and where. Scott, you know. The Alpha. Super strong and protective Alpha. The _true_ Alpha.”

“It would be more menacing if you didn’t put the emphasis on ‘true’,” Theo comments as if someone asked for his opinion. What does he think he is now, a threats expert, talking about emphasis and stuff? “Like, a normal Alpha, frightening enough. True Alpha? It just means he never killed anyone.”

“Hey, don’t you fucking try and teach my best friend how to threaten people, okay?” Liam snarls annoyed and Mason throws him a grateful look. Shit, now he thinks they’re good. No free pizza anymore.

Theo smirks, unimpressed. “Well, someone should and it’s sure as hell not you, last I remember you threatened me with a lamp.”

“Stop with the fucking lamp for god’s sake! I could have killed you with it in so many ways, so many. Now, why are you here?”

Theo doesn’t answer, glancing eloquently at Mason and Corey.

“We’ll go.” Mason says quickly and then he leaves, effectively stealing the spoon.

Corey lingers back just to circle the table and step right in front of Theo.

“I’ll blind you with this stick.” He says very calmly and then he leaves.

Liam blinks.

“I don’t think he means if you hurt me. He really just wants to blind someone apparently. You should be careful.”

“Aw, you worry about me, little wolf?” Liam doesn’t remember inviting Theo to sit with him, but he has totally taken Mason’s seat in front of him anyway and he seems happy about it, all mocking and cheerful. He’s so weird, Corey is probably going to jump from a bush and stab him in the eye at every second now, what does he have to be such in a  good mood for?

“Just your eyes, nothing to do with you.” Liam shrugs because he wouldn’t object a good eyes stabbing for Theo if his eyelashes weren’t so long and pretty and his iris so green and blue at the same time. He watched all the Saw movies, so really, he could handle it if he wanted to. “If I could put them on someone else’s face I would” He adds honest. He would save his eyes and his ass and that’s it, Corey could do what he wants with the rest. He deserves it anyway, while he totally doesn’t deserve to look like he does. 

“What?” Look, he’s not even smart. Liam hates when luck kisses unworthy minds with undeserved beauty.

“So, why are you here?” He asks ignoring his question. They’re in a very public and illuminated place, there’s no way he’ll try to stab him again there. And if he thinks Liam will follow him somewhere else again just because he wore a shirt matching his eyes he’s so wrong. If it was the exact same nuance of blue, maybe, but it’s so much darker. He must be colorblind or something.

Theo shrugs, absently playing with the petals from the centrepiece. “Well, you promise me something.”

Oh, that’s new. “Excuse me?” If he wants a diet coke or something Liam is going to lose his shit, he swears. 

“That you would have bitten me if you ever saw me again?” Theo smiles, provocative. “I’m right here.”

Liam frowns confused. What is this, reverse psychology? Does he want Liam to believe he wants to be bitten so Liam doesn’t? Or is he a masochist and he actually covets pain?  Or, oh wait, he gets it now.

“I’m not an Alpha, I can’t turn humans” Liam clarifies, because Theo is such a bad hunter anyway and at this point he’s not even surprised he secretly wants to become a werewolf. Who even trained him, really.

“Yeah, I know you can’t” Theo shrugs, unbothered. “I don’t mind you trying though.”

Liam blinks, taken aback. What is he...why is he smirking like that now? What’s that suggestive look in his eyes? And why does he suddenly smell so weird, like-holy shit, this asshole is _flirting_ with him!

The realization leaves Liam gasping incredulous as  the indignation fills him like a river in flood. First the stabbing and now _this?_

“Who the fuck you think you are, mh?” He snaps irritated. “If I bit you, _when_ I’ll bite you actually, if you keep behaving like this, it’s not going to be _fun_ or _sexy_ ,” Liam swallows, clearing his mind. It’s difficult to imagine something involving Theo that wouldn’t be sexy. “It’s going to be painful and bloody and gory and...” Liam tries to remember the worst tortures happened in Saw so he can use them against Theo, but his mind is working so slow right now and all he can think about is the lamp in his basement. _Don’t say lamp, Liam, don’t say it!_ “And...and I’m going to break your neck with my fangs and I will enjoy it and-”  
“Sure you will.”

“And your neck bone will _crack_ , so stop smirking!” If he could shout and roar like he wants to, Theo wouldn’t be so unimpressed and still flirty looking, Liam is sure of that. But Mason has already stolen a spoon from the cafe, he can’t be caught by the waiters screaming death threats to people, especially not Theo, he looks like the perfect victim with his blue eyes and his blue shirt and all his evil plans buried deeply under his definite muscles. “And then you’ll be dead and my eyes won’t even turn blue because you’re not innocent at all.”

“They’re already blue.” Theo says and Liam frowns.

“What?”

“You’re eyes” Theo specifies and he was already looking at them, but now Liam can feel him looking even more. _Don’t you dare blushing now._ “They’re blue. Like, a lot.”

“Yeah, I know.” He convenes, because sure, they are. “They’re pretty too. I mean, that’s what you said yesterday.” Liam clears his voice, disappearing under the table to pick up an oxygen molecule he particularly needed. “But I’m not talking about my main eyes, I’m talking about my other eyes. The supernatural ones.”

“What about them?” When Liam sits straight again, Theo looks confused.

“Well, as you certainly already know, they can be gold, red or...”

“Or nothing” Theo cuts him off, frowning. “Gold for Beta and red for Alpha.”

“And blue if you killed an innocent” Liam continues slowly, doubtful. “Really, you didn’t even know this? But like, what _do you_ know, don’t they teach you guys anything?” This is honestly so irresponsible, sending all those hot hunters on the loose without even telling them all about werewolves. Of course they get kidnapped then. “Can I talk to someone please? Your hunter professor or something? Oh wait, don’t tell me you’re an autodidact. That’s why you suck.”

“I’m not.” Theo says defensive and slightly offended, crossing his arms.

“Oh yeah?” Liam questions for the sake of it, since his heartbeat didn’t quiver.

“Yes. They’re not _professors,_ but there are a lot of them. They just...it’s not useful, anyway. Red for Alpha and gold for Beta, that’s enough to know your strength.” Theo shrugs uninterested. “The rest is useless.”

“They’re just lazy assholes, I’m happy they don’t get paid to teach you things” Liam insists because really, how many werewolves they have to stab if they don’t even have time to mention one more colour? “So, what do you actually want? I’m serious, I’m going to kick your ass for real this time if you try anything. Especially with my friends here. If you even come _close_ to them, I’ll-”

“What, you’ll use a chandelier on me this time?” Theo snorts, looking amused. Liam is not. 

“I’m serious, I’ll claw your eyes out.” He didn’t managed to say it as peacefully as Corey, but the fact that he actually has claws makes up for it. He can sense Theo tense up a little even if he still looks unimpressed.

“No you won’t, you like my eyes.”

“Yes, exactly, I do like them and I’ll keep them on my desk if you touch my frie-”

“I won’t.” Theo is not lying, but Liam keeps looking at him warily. “They’re humans anyway. And I’m not here to...hurt anyone. Human or not.”

“Then why are you here?” Liam asks for the umpteenth time. Maybe he’ll finally get an answer now.

Theo sighs and looks away, silent.

Oh great, they’re just gonna sit there without talking now. Why not. It’s not like Liam has places to be, things to do, people that never stabbed him that are waiting for him. He’s just going to sit there doing nothing all day with mister _I know nothing about werewolves but I still delight myself with attacking them_. Why not.

“So” Theo finally says, reluctant, and Liam raises his brows. “I might have been wrong.”

“Clearly, just a fool would order a diet coke with pizza” Liam quickly agrees, but Theo looks confused, because admitting your mistakes is not a thing anymore nowadays. “Fine, drink dish soap if you want, see if I care. Wrong about what then?”

Theo clears his throat, taking again his time to answer. Liam feels incredibly mature and patient for not flipping the table over like a part of him wants to. The waiting is enervating, he needs to know what this weirdo has planned to do with those sweatpants right now. You don’t just make your ass look like that with no ulterior motives.

“Like, you being dangerous and all?” Theo finally says, sounding uncertain. And he better be, because Liam is the most dangerous creature that ever lived.

“I am dangerous” He clarifies in fact, making a dangerous face and showing his dangerous teeth. He immediately regrets it because it probably looks stupid baring his human teeth like that, they’re not sharp at all and they’re not as blindingly white as Theo’s, but he can’t really pull out his fangs when they’re surrounded by witnesses. Luckily Theo seems too lost on his thoughts to notice his failure at looking dangerous.  

“I told them what happened, about you letting me go and buying me pizza, and they said the usual stuff, that it doesn’t matter, that you can’t control it and everything, but even when they were showing me the pictures I kept seeing you threatening me with the lamp and not even putting the maximum lighting on and how _not_ dangerous that looked. I mean, the thing that tore  the bodies in the pictures to pieces would have at least selected the maximum intensity, right? I think so.” Liam is so not following him right now. “So, I don’t know, maybe you _won’t_ kill anyone? Not the next full moon or the one after? Even if you lose control, you’ll just...illuminate people.”

“You’re disturbingly obsessed with this lamp thing” Liam concludes. He psychologically scarred him with his torture, so much for not dangerous.

“So yeah, I’m happy I didn’t kill you.” Theo continues, still ignoring him. This is not how conversations with other sentient beings work, what does he do usually, just talk to himself in the mirror? Is that why he’s not used to acknowledge actual replies? Liam wouldn’t be surprised. “We can date maybe?”

And _now_ Liam is sure Theo doesn’t know how conversations work.

“What?!” He gasps completely taken aback. What does he mean date? How do you go from _I’m happy I didn’t kill you_ to _let’s date_? How much strength in your legs you must have to jump the huge gulch between the two? Theo does have pretty muscular legs to be fair, at least from what Liam can see through the soft fabric of his sweatpants, but still, not even a werewolf could jump that far.

“Date” Theo repeats a little awkard, nervously tapping his fingers on the table. He looks cute, but he did even when he was alluring Liam in a dark alley to stab him. “Since we didn’t kill each other and you said I’m hot and I told you your eyes are pretty, so...”

“Yes, but you stabbed me” Liam reminds him, sounding as scandalized as he feels. “To _kill_ me. As in completely ending my life, my friends having to come to my funeral, my mom crying on my coffin. You can’t just, like, date? That’s not-” Liam shakes his head, overwhelmed. “One minute you want to kill me and the second later you want to date me? No, it’s not okay, we can’t date just like that. What if it’s not even a date but another imaginary dog, uh? And before I know you set me on fir-”

“It’s not. You can hear my heartbeat.”

Liam knows he can and he was already doing it to be honest, but this doesn’t change the fact that he has been stabbed by this guy less than twenty-four hours ago. What kind of unhealthy way to start a relationship would this be? You should be afraid of your date stabbing you in the back by cheating or something, not literally stabbing you with a dagger covered in wolfsbane. Nope, Liam has more survival instinct than this.   

“Still, it’s not okay” He insists firm, his dignity applauding him loudly. “I’m not dating you.”

“Okay” Theo shrugs, immediately standing up. Well, that was easy. Not persistent at all. “I was just saying anyway” He adds and he looks so unbothered by Liam’s rejection that the smell of shame waving off him seems oddly out of place. “I didn’t planned it or anything, I saw you here and it was just an idea, I didn’t even know if I actually wanted to date you. I probably would have said no if you said yes, so. Better this way. Bye.”

Theo turns around and starts walking away and Liam doesn’t know if it’s for the disappointment he smelled or for the perfect view he’s offering him of his gorgeous ass right now, but he’s about to stop him because okay, maybe they can’t date yet, but what about hanging out a little? It’s not like he has to storm off like that all offended, there is a middle ground between dating and never see each other again. Liam has the _wait_ already on his lips when his phone buzzes in his pocket, distracting him. He pulls it out and he hesitates for a second, watching Theo and his sweatpants walking away.

Well, he _did_ stab him after all. Maybe it’s better this way, just like Theo said.

Liam watches him disappear at the corner at the end of the road with a strange feeling in his guts and then he lowers his eyes on the screen of his phone.

 

 

 **From Scott. Received:** _Did you actually told Mason I’m fat?_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter stressed me out a bit -or maybe I stressed it out, still: I'm not happy with it, so... sorry I guess, if it's not as good as the first two, I'm very happy you liked those two so much, I actually had a lot of fun writing them. (Unlike this one, yes I'm bullying this chapter, he bullied me.)


	4. Chapter 4

 

Scott just called him on Skype and he’s not wearing a shirt.

Liam feels disturbed.

“Hey Liam, how are-”

“I won’t Skype sex with you.”

“It was nice hearing from you, goodnight.”

And with that he hangs up before Liam can move his lips again. Hell, some people really can’t handle rejection.

 

 

“Scott, what the hell” Liam mutters as soon as Scott answers his call –this time a normal phone call where his Alpha can’t show off his sweaty, muscular chest. 

“I was thinking exactly the same thing, Liam: what the hell.”

“You weren’t wearing a shirt!” Liam protests loudly because sure, let’s just act like _he’s_ the weird one now. Except he’s fully clothed, isn’t he. 

“I know, I just finished working out and it’s hot here.”

“So you weren’t trying to seduce me” Liam investigates cautious. It’s not particularly believable, you don’t just casually call someone right after working out, unless you’re working out _exactly_ for that someone. Why does Scott want to look hot in his eyes now? Is this because of Mason? Is he trying to show Liam he’s not fat? Or is he actually in love with him now? That wouldn’t be weird actually. People fall in love with Liam all the time, he’s loveable just like that. It happened with Hayden and with his five years old cousin and...and that’s it actually, but still, _two_ girls in love with him already and he’s only seventeen. If he keeps like this he’ll have almost five before the thirty.   

“No, of course not. Did I?”

“What?”

“Seduced you.”

“Shit no, Scott, you’re like my dad!” Liam emits a disgusted sound because if he can handle Scott falling in love with him, the thought of him reciprocating is so immensely wrong. 

“I never even came near to your mom, what are you on about.”

“Oh my god, goodnight Scott.” Liam hangs up.

 

  
After pouring himself a glass of water, Liam picks up his phone again.

“Did you want something?” 

“What?”

“Except traumatizing me, did you call for something in particular?”

“Oh yeah, no, I just wanted to know if everything was okay” Scott’s voice sounds suspiciously casual. “Mason said Theo approached you again a couple of days ago, did he try to stab you or anything?”

“No, he didn’t. Luckily, since you know, I would have bleed to death in the two days you took to call.”

“What did he want then?”

Liam shrugs, indifferent. “Who knows.”

“You, most likely.”  
“Well, yeah. He wanted to look good so he said he was wrong for stabbing me” Liam admits reluctant. “But like, he didn’t even apologized. And he wore sweatpants. What an asshole.”

Scott stays silent for several seconds and he slowly speaks again just when Liam removes his phone from his ear to check if he’s still there. Typical.

“So he changed his mind about werewolves?”

Liam nods. “That’s what he said.”

“Couldn’t you hear his heartbeat?”

“Well, yes.”  
“So he _did_ changed his mind.” Scott insists and Liam has no idea why he’s so interested, maybe he’s writing a book about his life now, who knows.  
“For now” Liam confirms a bit sceptical. “I mean, he could change it again tomorrow or as soon as  he meets a dick werewolf, since he’s so volatile. He just needs to talk to Brett once and it’s done, hunter again.”

“We were friends in first grade, you know” Scott announces not giving any sign of hearing what Liam just said. His book is not going to sell well if these are all his skills with correlations.  

“Did he stabbed you too?”

“That was an accident and I was still human.”

“Wait, _did_ he?” Liam asks incredulous. What a joke. Maybe Theo asked Scott out as well after the stabbing part, since this is how he seems to think dating works. The diet coke was probably a part of his weird mating ritual as well. Insane, that’s what he is. He should be locked up.

“With a fork, but I had stolen his sandwich” Scott says quickly and nonchalant, like the stabbing is not the point. How can the stabbing not being the point is beyond Liam. “Look, I don’t think he’s evil.”

“He stabbed you with a fork.” Liam says very calmly. If Scott called just to deliver the point of Theo not being evil, he’s doing an awful job.

“You stabbed Brett with an awl” Scott replies as if this had something to do with anything.

“He cheated at Monopoly.” Liam is so tired of people defending Brett. He can’t have him arrested, he can’t stab him, what _can_ he do?

“My point is” Scott sighs. “We were friends until his sister died and he moved out of town.”

Liam is very conflicted for several seconds between the joy for Brett finally going away from his life and the sadness for Lori’s departure, until he remembers seeing Lori that same morning and he realizes who Scott is actually talking about.

“His sister died?” He asks uncertain. It’s not like he knew Theo’s sister, or like he even knew Theo had a sister in the first place, and for what he knows he could have been the one to kill her, stabbing her to death like he does, but still, it totally sucks. Mason is the closest to a sibling he’ll ever have and if something definitive ever happened to him Liam would be sad for the rest of his life.  

“Yes, I don’t know much about it, I was nine when it happened, but they found her body in the Preserve. You know, where they also found...” Scott hesitates and Liam sighs deeply, because it instantly clicks where he’s going.  

“All the other bodies from the victims of mountain lions attacks through the years” He says slowly. Except they weren’t mountain lions. 

“Yes.” Scott’s voice is quiet and almost ashamed, as if he was responsible for the acts of omegas and monsters who crossed Beacon Hills through the years, even before he was bitten. He’s not and neither is Liam.                                                                                                                                  

“Why are you telling me this?” He mutters thoughtful. This changes nothing. He never hurt anyone -except Brett- and what other humans do with the bite once they received it doesn’t justify a dagger in his innocent guts. He’s still the victim here. It just makes a little more sense that Theo didn’t know that, if a werewolf killed his sister.

“Because I think it matters” Scott sighs heavy. “We already know how they distort reality to recruit new hunters, using gory pictures to blame all of us, to make it look like killing us means saving them, and with what happened to his sister, well, I guess it was easy to believe them. Because I remember him, Liam, and he wasn’t mean, he just really hated when people touched his food.” Part of Liam wants to dispute this because no matter what, it shouldn’t be that easy to be talked into killing someone you don’t even know and Liam never touched Theo’s fucking sandwich, but part of him also remembers that time he wanted to kill all the bees in the world because one of them stung Mason. It’s not the same, mostly because bees fly and you can’t allure them in dark alleys with fake excuses, because they have places to be and flowers to pollinate and they wouldn’t care about imaginary dogs or hot leather jackets, but also because bees are not people and Liam was _six_ when he declared them war. Now he wouldn’t try to exterminate all Canadians if one of them killed Mason because that’s what reasonable people look like, busy not exterminating Canadians, and because Canadians are a lot, maybe there are more Canadians than bees, which are an endangered species after all. Still, Liam would be sad for life if a Canadian killed Mason, and sad people sometimes do stupid stuff, like maybe stabbing happy innocent people.

“So, you know, don’t be too hard on him maybe?” Scott continues hesitant. “Like, don’t kidnap him again or anything? Mason said you wanted to blind him, I really-”  
“Wait what? That’s his fucking boyfriend, not me!” Fuck everything, the Canadians can have Mason anytime. “ _Oh_ _my god,_ goodnight Scott, I gotta go breaking up with my best friend once and for all. Yes, yes, nobody is blinding him, have you seen his eyes? Yes it matters, ‘night.”

 

***

 

 

Liam is being so mature he could throw up at any moment now, but he won’t, because throwing up is not how being mature looks like. Skip the first hour, sniff around and spy into every classroom is what being mature looks like. Liam is already tired of this, once he found Theo and did his mature thing, he’ll never be responsible again until he’s thirty, that’s it.

It takes him almost twenty minutes to find him, he’s having Biology the asshole and he’s in the first desk, all interested and busy taking notes, probably so he can finally learn where to stab people in order to actually kill them. Liam waits patiently the end of the lesson, sitting outside and counting all the disgraces in his life to pass the time, and when the bell rings he’s not even halfway through his eight year of life, because he’s miserable just like that.

The students start getting out and Liam can hear Theo’s passionate voice still inside, talking with the professor about something very boring sounding. What a nerd, licking the professor’s ass even after the lesson ended, like Liam didn’t wait enough already. Being mature is so tiring.   

To be fair, this will give him some time to think about what to say exactly, since he was too busy listing his disgraces to actually plan a strategy. It can’t sound like he’s forgiving him or something, because Liam’s guts won’t ever forgive or forget and Liam always agrees with his guts, except when he eats too much cake and they start complaining like drama queens, but still, no forgiving and no dating, this is important. He just needs to let Theo know that now that he knows, he also knows why he did it, and maybe suggest that they can hung out sometimes, just so Theo sees how nice werewolves are and stays in the right not stabbing path. Of course, he can’t just start the conversation admitting that his Alpha gossiped with him about Theo’s tragic past, he needs to be smart and subtle about it. Liam doesn’t have a lot of experience with being subtle to be honest, but if he can do mature so well, and he can apparently, then he can do subtle as well.

“Your sister died.”

_Shit._

“Excuse me?”

Theo stops on the door looking at him wide-eyed.

The professor exits the room as well glancing weirdly at them and maybe Liam’s tone was a bit loud, like always when he’s nervous. Not a great start, fine, but not tragic either. It’s not like he insulted him, it’s the truth, his sister died and Liam is just speaking facts. Honesty is more important than subtlety anyway.

“I mean, Scott told me what happened to your sister.” He clears his voice preparing himself to be mature, because he can still do that even now that subtle is lost. “So. Yeah. I understand now. And I’m sorry about that.”

That was a total success, Liam just said _I’m sorry_ even if he’s not the one who stabbed the other here and if this is not maturity then he doesn’t know what it is. 

Theo doesn’t look impressed.

“What do you understand?” He asks frowning. He sounds confused and a little bothered. Weird.

“Like, you thinking all werewolves are dangerous and wanting revenge, since one killed you sister and-” Liam’s words die on his tongue as Theo emits an incredulous snort.

“Excuse me? My sister died falling into an ice creek” He says cold. “Hypothermia. Nothing supernatural about that.”

Liam blinks astonished. This is not how he planned this conversation. Not that he actually planned it, but still, he had expectations.

“But, like, you believed that it was a werewolf” He insists hesitant. “Because of all the accidents, and so that’s why-”

“No, I didn’t believe shit. I was the one who found her. I _saw_ it.”

Theo looks a little hostile now and he definitely smells annoyed. Liam clears his voice, confused. Why does being mature feels so much like feeling stupid? “So, you...you didn’t...”

“No I didn’t become an hunter because of a tear ripping story, so you can keep your assumptions to yourself” Theo’s voice is quiet and controlled but his eyes are totally insulting Liam right now, he can feel it. “They just came to me and showed me that werewolves are real and I said okay, let’s go kill them, because it seemed like the logical thing to do.”

That is _so_ not the logical thing to do, but Liam is too busy gasping surprised to point that out.

“I’m sorry this doesn’t fit into the poor traumatized boy image you pictured of me, but my sister dying doesn’t have nothing to do with this” Theo concludes crossing his arms on his chest and his voice getting louder wakes Liam up from his astonishment.

“Yeah well, you _should_ be sorry actually” He grumbles annoyed. “I thought you had a reason to be a dick, but you’re actually just a dick.”

Theo nods, smug. “Exactly.”

“Great _._ ” Liam nods as well, more theatrically, and he makes sure his voice is louder than Theo’s, because his time being mature is over. 

Theo’s as well, because he’s almost shouting now. “Awesome!”

“Fucking perfect!” Liam on the other hand is totally shouting, because he’s better at being immature than anyone else. Theo seems to get that, because he suddenly gives up and turns on his heels. Liam considers throwing something at his back and run, but then he sighs, maturity taking over his body all of a sudden. “Wait.” Theo stills, glancing back wary. “I mean, it doesn’t matter. You still came to your senses in the end, so. It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry about your sister.”

Theo looks suspicious for several seconds, then his shoulders relax. “Okay.”

“You’re welcome.”

“What.”

_Shit._

“You usually, I mean, you usually say thanks, and so I-”

“No you don’t.” Theo shakes his head, but the corner of his mouth is stretched in the effort of not curling. “ _I’m sorry your sister is dead, thanks, you’re welcome,_ this is so not an acceptable dialogue Liam, let alone an usual one.”

“Yeah, well, okay, fuck you.”

Liam is so not here for this. He’s perfectly capable of handling a conversation without the help of someone who thinks stabbing is interchangeable with a proper introduction, thank you very much.

Why is he smirking like that now is beyond Liam.

“Just tell me when and where.”

Liam gasps, indignant. “Excuse me?”

Theo shrugs. “I said fuck off.”

And then he’s gone.

“You didn’t say that!” Liam screams after him, because his ears work just fine and he’s not stupid. He _so_ didn’t said that. “I’M NOT DATING YOU!”

 

  

“Weren’t you supposed to be nice and clarify that you still want to hang out with him even if not date yet?”

Liam lets the best years of his life fall and crush to the floor as Mason literally appears out of the walls. What the hell is wrong with everyone in this school?

“Yes.” He confirms.

“And?”

“And what?”

“I don’t know, I just caught you screaming after him you weren’t gonna date him. Was that being nice?”

“Yes” Liam nods again and Mason’s brows instantly touch the ceiling. “I said _date_. I didn’t said that I won’t hang out with him sometimes or anything. I also didn’t said that I’ll _never_ date him. If he’s too dense to get that then it’s not my fault.”

“I don’t think anyone could get that” Mason replies because he clearly decided to be unsupportive today, like any other day.

“Anyone with a brain could, if you don’t want to date someone for the rest of your life you say it, I’ll _never_ date you. If not, you should get it.”

“Okay, I agree” Mason says and his heart literally stops beating.

“You don’t, you’re lying.”

“Yes I don’t, no one in the universe would agree and he’ll never ever get that.” Liam snorts. Why is Mason so dramatic now. “And normally I’d be already after him doing your dirty work, explaining him how your weird mind works, but I’m still not sure if I actually want you to hang out with someone that tried to kill you, so yeah, I’ll just agree with you.”

Liam blinks confused. “So you’re sabotaging me.”

“It’s sad that agreeing with you is actually sabotaging you, but yes, kinda” Mason nods and Liam feels like stop talking to him again. This is so insulting, honestly. “I’m just letting you sabotage yourself instead of fixing it.”

“You’re being a traitor again then” Liam mutters offended.

“No, I don’t think so, I’m being mature” Mason says because Liam can never do something without Mason wanting to do it too. Now he’s the mature one, sure. Liam is surprised he didn’t asked for the bite yet. “I mean, I secretly want you to date the shit out of him because well, you clearly want to, you held a bigger grudge against me for the picture thing than against him for you know, the stabbing thing, and you bought him pizza and you never bought me pizza in seventeen years, you actually manage to steal some of _my_ pizza everytime we order it together, but you let him eat all his pizza even if he was tied up and he wasn’t going to bite you like I always do, and he’s so hot that you somehow forgot about having to be depressed for Hayden and I’m so grateful about that because I don’t want to hear all day how she is a traitorous for dating Brett now and-”

“Wait what, _is she?”_ Fucking unbelievable. They didn’t waste any time, did they.  

“And so yeah, I totally want you to date him, so we can go to double dates like I always dreamed and he’s so going to raise up the hotness bar of our group, but I’m also mature enough to know that it’s not safe just yet when he literally stabbed you and when Corey keeps talking about blinding him, so yes, I’m definitely being a good friend by letting you sabotage yourself.”

It seems like Mason spent a lot of time thinking about this, which isn’t surprisingly at all since his best friend appears to spend so much time gossiping about Liam's life, and Liam should probably trust him on this, since he, on the other hand, never spend time thinking about his dating life.

“I bought you pizza when you were sick” He retorts anyway because he doesn’t like lies.  

“You ate it” Mason mutters resentful. “You said I couldn’t because I was sick and you made me soup.”

“Because you eat soup when you’re sick, Mason, not pizza, I don’t make the rules.”

“Then _why_ did you buy it.” He’s such a child, so much for being the mature one.

“Because the world doesn’t stop just because you’re sick, Mason, not everything is about you, you egotist” Liam explains, right before suggesting they go to class, showing once and for all who’s the mature one around there.

 

***

 

 

Liam is responsibly taking out the trash that afternoon when everything goes black.

 

  

He wakes up hours later with a pounding pain on the back of his head and several blurred figures in front of him. He tries to bring a hand to his eyes and he feels tight ropes burning his wrists, muffled voices whispering around him and then shock and pain all over his body as the electricity shakes him from toes to hair. He doesn’t scream, but he can feel the wet on his cheeks and under his nose as soon as it stops. His limbs keep tingling painfully and his vision is still fogged, but when someone steps closer, he could recognizes those blue eyes everywhere.  
“What-” The voice is hoarse and feeble and Liam doesn’t connect right away that it came out of his lips, that this is how he sounds now.  

Theo watches him impassive as Liam’s eyelids start weighing too much.

His cold, sarcastic voice is the last thing Liam hears before everything goes black again.

 

“I don’t take rejection well.”

 

 

  


	5. Chapter 5

 

“Hey little wolf?”

Liam is confused for just about two seconds on why he’s waking up to Theo’s whispering voice and then he’s roaring, fangs bared and eyes gleaming gold, two inches from his face, his own anger burning him more than the ropes around his wrists and neck.

“You’re dead” He growls as Theo steps back out of his reach, making his blood boil even more. “Do you hear me? I’m going to fucking kill you, you traitorous piece of s-”

“Hey, calm down, I didn’t do anything.” Theo raises his hands in a defensive manner and Liam growls loudly between his teeth, pulling the ropes with all his strength and managing only to cut his skin even more, as the smell of wolfsbane and blood fills his nostrils.

“Oh you didn’t do anything, _Mr._ _I don’t take rejection well?”_ He snarls trembling with anger. He doesn’t care that his limbs feel aching and weak, as soon as he breaks free he’s going to fuck everyone up, starting with the asshole in front of him. He’s not even distracted by his hotness this time, fuck his blue eyes and fuck his perfect hair, every second spent looking at his stupid face is a second in which he’s not throwing him against a wall, so a wasted second. 

“They were looking at me!” Theo glances at the closed door on their left and he somehow still seems to think Liam will believe even one word coming out of his mouth. He gives another push to the ropes, taking in that it’s useless and he’s bound to a large metallic grid in what looks like some abandoned warehouse. 

“What are you even doing with them?” He snaps back cold as he bends his left wrist as much as he can, trying to reach the rope with his claws. “You said you were wrong about werewolves.” Just buy some time, come on. And then fuck them all up. Liam can’t wait for that part.

“Yes, and I wasn’t going to come back, but they said they had a present for me and then they brought you in, I had no idea-”

“Oh my god, what did you think they were going to gift you, they’re murderers!” Liam growls frustrated, feeling pain even on the tips of his fingers as he tries to extract his stupid claws another bit, just enough to scratch the rope. But he can’t even touch it.   

“I don’t know okay, it’s my birthday in two weeks” Theo replies defensive, glancing again at the door, an hurried look in his eyes.

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

“Happy birthday.”

“Thanks.”

“It’s not your birthday you idiot.”

“You  just said-”

“Yes, because it brings bad luck to wish someone happy birthday before his actual birthday and I’m wishing you all the bad luck in the world, I hope you get run over by an ice-cream truck and spend your birthday in a coffin you fucking asshole!” Liam actually snaps his fangs in the air in the impossibility to sink them in some part of Theo’s body and he’s both satisfied and irritated when Theo takes another step back. A little more drawing back and he’s going to fall out of the window, and then Liam will still be all tied up and about to die but he will be happy.

“Look, I _didn’t_ do this, okay? I’m not the one who caught you!” He says quickly and this, Liam can believe it, because the only thing he’d be able to catch is a cold. “I was just playing along.”

“You told them where I live.” Liam feels the bile throbbing in his throat as he glares at Theo. He bought him pizza, for fuck’s sake. How can you do this to someone who bought you pizza? This is sick and it’s worst than when he stabbed him in his stomach. But then again, he _did_ stabbed him in the stomach after thirty seconds they knew each other, Liam can’t really blame the world for his own naivety this time.

“No, I didn’t, I-”

“They caught me right out of my house, just a week after I brought you there” And to think that Liam wanted to _hang out_ with him, he feels so stupid now. He’s so going to hang him out of the window with the laces of his shoes if he breaks free. “Corey was right, I should have clawed your eyes out.”

Theo seems a little creeped out by this. “Who the fuck is Corey.”

Liam raises his chin up heroically. “I’ll die before I tell you.” They got him, but they’ll never put their hands on their friends, not even that psycho of Corey. “You can torture me all you want but you’ll get nothing out of me.”

“What the hel- look, I’m not torturing you!”

“Oh yeah?” Liam presses, sarcastic. “Because I feel kinda tortured right now, I don’t know why, it might be the covered in wolfsbane ropes around my wrists and neck or the _electrified_ grid I’m attached too, but hey, maybe I’m wrong.”

“Keep your voice down!” Theo whispers anxious, before sighing. “Look, I didn’t do this, okay? They already knew about you, they’re the ones who set me after you, remember?” 

“When you stabbed me, yes, I remember.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake” Theo snaps irritated. Like he had the right to. “Can’t you just believe me? You can hear my heartbeat, can you.” He steps closer again, as if Liam couldn’t already perfectly hear his heart pumping blood through his veins, smell every single emotion on his skin.    

“You can control it.”

Theo frowns, tilting his head to the side and taking another step forward. “What?” Liam watches his neck and thinks he’s close enough for him to reach it with his fangs now.

“You can control it” He repeats, firm. “Some hunters can, it’s rare, but Scott told me about it.”

Theo freezes, looking at Liam like he lost his mind. “You think I can control my _heartbeat_.”

Liam holds his gaze, impassive. “Yes.”

Theo blinks several times, before letting out an imperceptible sigh. “So you’ll just proceed not to trust me, me, the only person here who wants to help you.”

Liam considers it for a second. “Cut these ropes and I’ll trust you.”

“I can’t.”

Liam snorts, shaking his head. Sure, freeing him is not part of his _rescue_ mission, how convenient.  

“I can’t, they’re coming back” Theo urges, glancing at the door. Liam can’t hear any footstep in the proximity. “What are you going to do, take them all by yourself? They’ll just shoot you and me both.”

“You’re right, you’re being so helpful right now, how can I _not_ trust you” Liam mutters sour under his breath, not looking  at Theo and giving another pull to the ropes. He feels like his wrists are going t break before the ropes do.

“Tell me what to do then!” Theo’s phone suddenly appears from his pocket as he looks at Liam expectantly. “Who do I call, is this Corey in your pack? Scott is not in town, who’s here that can come? Just give me a number and I’ll call them, but hurry.”

Liam stares at him in silence for several seconds, thinking about Mason. He just needs to let him know what’s happening and he’ll be there, wherever they are, in a matter of minutes, with reinforcements. Hell, even Brett would come, everyone would. Exactly where they want them.

“So that’s what you’re doing” He speaks slow, looking coldly at Theo.

“What?”

“You want me to help you allure my entire pack into an ambush just like you allured me into that alley” Liam continues, anger vibrating in his voice. “Well, guess what, you can fuck yourself because I’m not helping you save any imaginary dog this time.”

Theo looks incredulous for awhile and Liam has to give him that, he’s good at this.

“It’s not a fucking trap, you idiot, just tell me who to call, quick!”

A part of Liam, the less or most lucid one, he’s not sure, wants to believe him and he almost does, but he can’t have his friends and not even Brett ending up with burning ropes around their necks just because he trusted a guy none of them would have, and so he snarls.  

“If you’re not going to set me free then stop talking, I won’t buy it.”

Theo looks so exasperated by this, like Liam didn’t already trust him once and didn’t end up with a dagger in his guts as a result.

When he finally notices the footsteps, Theo does too.

“They’re coming” He whispers hasty, holding his phone up, eloquent. “Last chance.” Liam just growls at him and Theo snorts. “Fine, get yourself killed then, see if I care.”

The door bursts open just as Theo makes his phone disappear in his pocket and a tall, muscular man resembling a tank enters. So cliché. It couldn’t be some skinny guy, no, god forbid his life being original sometimes.

“Is the dog misbehaving?” He grunts and Liam actually glances around looking for a dog before realizing _he’s_ the dog. Fuck this, has this guys even saw himself in the mirror? He’s the one looking like a mastiff, not Liam. “I heard roars.”

“Say that to my face you ant-bear” Liam growls before Theo can answer, glaring at the new hunter. If he thinks he’s the only one who can call names he’s about to have a surprise. _Dog,_ please, Liam is about to pour every single animal on him, he knows so many.

Despite not knowing how an ant-bear looks like –because Liam bets he doesn’t- the human tank still takes offence and in just a second he’s charging towards Liam like a bull. Liam can see him raising his fist like in slow motion and he’s so ready for it, he’s going to sink his fangs so deep in his forearm that he’ll leave a permanent tattoo on his bone, but suddenly his eyes shut and every inch of his body trembles under a brief electric shock. It lasts just a few seconds, but before Liam can even open his eyes something cold and metallic crushes against his face, shooting it to the side. He tastes blood in his mouth and this time he actually manages to open his eyes before getting hit again, his nose breaking under the punch with a loud _crack_. He roars furious, pulling the ropes and trying to reach the hunter who has taken a step back and is now looking at Theo with his brows raised. Liam lowers his eyes and sees the knuckle duster on the hunter’s hand –what a joke, he can’t even give a punch without cheating-  and Theo’s hand gripped on his forearm, keeping it in place.   

“Didn’t the others said not to kill him yet?” He asks light-hearted and Liam doesn’t know if the other hunter can read the uneasiness in his tone as well as him.

“He’s a werewolf, he won’t die from this” He shrugs, freeing his arm from Theo’s grip.   

“But _you_ will!” Liam snarls, spitting blood on the floor and pulling the ropes again. Who made them so resistant? These people shown their incompetence until now and suddenly they know how to effectively restraint a werewolf? This is bullshit.

This time, before the electricity runs through his body, Liam catches a glimpse of the hunter’s fingers moving. There’s a remote control in his hand and when Theo grabs it for the second time the pain stop. Liam pants deeply, feeling his lungs aching as the air fills them again. If he get electrocuted one more time, he swears...

“You can’t be sure” Theo is saying, his heartbeat racing. “My cousin hit his head and died one time.”

 _One time._ His cousin died one time. Liam suddenly thinks he made a mistake not to trust him. He makes a terrible liar.

The dead hunter – he’s _so_ , _so_ dead – frees his hand again with a look that promises pain in case he has to do it a second time and raises his brows at Theo.

“Was your cousin a werewolf, Theo?” Liam hates the condescending tone he just used. Who does he think he is, speaking to people like that, when his face screams s _tupid_. And he is, Liam doesn’t care if you‘re not supposed to judge hunters by their face, he can bet everything in the world this one has a low QI, he’s cliché just like that. 

From the look on his face, Theo seems aware of how pathetic his attempt was. “No, but-”

“Exactly.” Dead man walking cuts him off and then Liam’s still healing nose meets his metallic punch once again. Liam roars so loud the dusted glass on the window flickers and maybe he _is_ a dog, because the impulse to sink his fangs in this asshole’s neck and jolt it until it’s broken is so strong now.

“Come fucking closer you coward knob, I’ll change your features for free and maybe you’ll finally stop looking like the ass of a corgi you-” When the shook comes, Liam accidentally bites his tongue.

_“Stop.”_

“What did you said?” The hunter smirks all smug, keeping himself out of reach, and Liam suddenly can’t remember what did he have to be so angry about in his life before meeting this guy. He never needed to headbutt someone like he does now. 

“I said that you look like the ass of a corgi because I was being nice and I didn’t want to say that you smell like it too” He growls, ignoring the pain in his throat everytime he speaks. “Is this why your life sucks so much you need to hunt innocent teenag-” The shock is punctual and Liam roars again, louder than the pain.  

 _“I said stop!”_ Theo shouts and suddenly Liam can breathe again.

“Excuse me?” The hunter’s eyes still on Theo’s grip once again on his hand, keeping it away from the red button on the controller. Theo glances hesitant at Liam like he expects him to solve this mess when his brain is still dealing with being electrocuted several times, and then he shrugs, recollecting his cool.   

“I want to try it, you can’t have all the fun.”

The hunter’s annoyed expression changes immediately, replaced by a smirk, and he hands him the controller. “Here, all yours.”

Theo takes it and Liam swears, if he as much come _close_ to touching the fucking red button on it Liam is going to find a lamp and shove it so far up his ass he won’t ever be able to open his mouth without lighting everything up, he’ll kidnap him again and he’ll empty endless cans of _normal_ coke down his throat and he’ll never feed him pizza, not ever, and just then, after all this, he’ll finally give him to Corey to make centrepieces out of his eyes.  

Theo must sense the danger above his head because his thumb brushes hesitantly on the controller without pressing any buttons as he clears his throat.

“So, how do I use it, do I just press the red button?” He asks doubtful and he really is just beauty with no brain because even Liam’s grandma who doesn’t know how to change channel on T.V. could make that thing work, except that she wouldn’t because she loves him very much and unlike Theo she has an actual heart. “And what does the blue indicator mean?”

Liam is so pissed that this is becoming a technology lesson, if his hands were free he would just electrocute himself at this point.

Human tank leans closer, frowning at the controller. “What blue indic-”

Liam actually screamed. He managed not to do it and look all stoic and stuff until now, even while being electrocuted, but Theo just _had_ to scare him and ruin everything at the last second, pulling that move out of nowhere. It was such a girly scream, Liam is just happy Theo was too busy elbowing the human tank in the face to notice it. It was a good hit to be fair, fast and unexpected, and there’s an acceptable amount of blood on human tank’s face now, but most importantly, his gun is not on his belt anymore. 

“What the fu-” He growls holding his nose and turning to glare at Theo, who has wisely taken a step back. His menacing glare dies as soon as he’s met by his own gun pointed at him by the younger hunter. “Okay, let’s just calm down, alri-”

“Shoot him!” Liam shouts because this is clearly the moment where human tank gets what he needs, which is a bullet inside his body, and Liam will not calm down until that happens. 

This is also the moment where Theo doesn’t shoot right away but glances at Liam and human tank slowly takes a step further, holding his hands up.“Theo, kid, listen, you don’t want to-

“You’re a terrible hunter, he’s _so_ going to disarm you, just shoot him!” Liam shouts again because fuck this, hasn’t Theo seen any movie in his life? How can he be the only one in the room to know that you never wait after you got the gun, you just shoot and so you win and then nobody will make a movie about you, fine, because smart people don’t work good movies, but at least you’re alive. But Theo is not smart, he drinks diet coke with pizza for god’s sake, and he makes the perfect stupid protagonist for a B movie with his pretty dumb face, so of course he doesn’t shoot and human tank actually growls at Liam because you can’t even state your opinion nowadays without people getting offended. 

“Stop barking, dog!” He snarls and Liam is so ready to rip his hand off with his fangs as he sees the fist getting closer to his face, and then he screams again, just as girlishly as the first time. 

“Fuck” Theo is too busy looking surprised at his own hand holding the gun to mock him. “I shot him.”

He totally did. Human tank is now on the floor, near where Liam’s dignity fell, with his hands on his thigh and so many imprecations Liam didn’t know existed on his tongue.   

“You did” Liam confirms, surprised as well. Part of him was sure Theo was taking so long because he was looking for the red button on the gun too.   

“I shot him” He repeats wide-eyed and Liam can’t help but think that he didn’t look _so_ shocked after he stabbed him. He kinda feels salty about it, but it’s probably not the moment to complain.

“What if he dies, is he dead?” Theo raves as human tank keeps making satisfying pained sounds, so clearly and sadly not dead. “I don’t want to go to jail, you _did_ this!”

Oh hell no.

 _“Excuse_ me?”

“Fuck!” Theo looks so panicked now and Liam feels a lot better about his girly scream. “I shot him and you don’t even trust me!”

“I do trust you.”

Theo stills, completely taken aback by Liam’s admission. He looks incredulous and he’s right to do so, because Liam is so not trusting him right now, he literally just asked him if a man who’s imprecating between his teeth was dead, so not trustworthy.

“Since when.”

“Five seconds.” He says anyway because okay, he kinda trusts his _willingness_ to help. “Listen, they totally heard the gunshot, free me now!”

 

 

The first thing Liam does once his wrists are not tied up anymore is pay human tank his respects by knocking him out with his knee, then he borrows Theo’s phone and calls the only dignified hunter in that town of assholes. As soon as Argent reassures him he’s on his way, Liam gives the phone back to Theo, who seems very assorted in examining human tank’s unconscious body.

“Should I shoot him again?” He asks thoughtful, because Liam just needed another psychopath in his life apparently. “So he can’t tell anyone I shot him?”

“Weren’t you so panicked about shooting him like twenty seconds ago?”

“Yes, but it was fun” Theo shrugs, aiming right at human tank’s forehead. “I can’t wait to shoot someone again.”

Liam really hopes he _can_ wait because he’s the only other shootable person in the room right now.  

“What if I keep the gun instead” He proposes a little annoyed, because he’s not happy of having to be the calm and responsible one when he literally suffers from I.E.D. He should be the one restrained from killing assholes, not the other way around.   

Theo scoffs. “You have fangs, I keep the gun.”

“I also have a morality, _I_ keep the gun.”

“It’s mine.”

“It’s not yours, you just stole it.”

“I found it.”

 “That’s what stealing mean, when you find something on another pers-” Liam stills, his ears registering distant footsteps getting closer and closer. “They’re coming” He whispers and Theo throws an alarmed look at the door.

“Is there any chance you’re talking about the reinforcements you just called?” Theo sighs, not even needing an answer. “How many?” 

Liam focuses, trying to count and giving up almost immediately. “Too many. Keep the gun.”

Liam will never be able to take them all by himself and this is what makes him so much more heroic as he slowly walks towards the danger, placing himself right in front of the door. He’s like Jon Snow, but with fangs, the king of the wolves. The footsteps keep getting closer and Liam flashes his eyes gold, baring his fangs and claws. If this is how he dies, then he’s going to take as many of them as he can. He’s such an hero being there all ready to fight and die and as soon as the door will open he’ll roar so loud and it will be epic, Liam just wishes someone was there to film him now, because how cool is he, honestly? Despite his life constantly sucking and everything he’s still there being a flawless hero.  So epic.

“Can’t we run?” Theo asks from behind him.

Liam turns back perplexed. “What?”

“There’s another door.” 

Liam’s eyes follow the direction pointed by Theo’s index and there it is, another door on the opposite side of the one where the hunters are about to come from. Liam blinks several times, considering his options, and then he grabs Theo’ wrist and runs, because nobody was filming him anyway, no point in being heroic.

 

***

 

 

“I suggest we stop.”

“I suggest we don’t.”

They’ve been running through corridors and rooms for two years and it’s not like Liam wouldn’t _love_ to stop or like he doesn’t absolutely _hate_ this, or like his lungs are not about to collapse on themselves, because they are in fact, but stopping when everyone is following you to kill you is clearly a terrible idea and the fact that Theo had it is just further prove of that. 

“Look, I’m trained for this” Theo pants and Liam really hopes he’s not talking about running because he’s clearly so not trained for this, Liam is basically dragging him and he still manages to look exhausted, all sweaty and smelly. “You said you trust me.”

Liam _did_ said it, just after some hunter electrocuted his common sense out of him.

“That was a onetime thing” He clears out panting a little as well. He wonders if werewolves can have heart attacks. “And even then I never trusted your survivor skills, just your apparent willingness to help.”

“Shut up” Theo mutters and then he launches himself into a room, dragging Liam with him and rolling on the floor for no fucking reason. Nobody is shooting at them right now, nor filming them, there’s no point in trying to be all athletic, but he bit his tongue too hard during the fall to complain about that.   

“Why the fuck did you need to throw us on the floor, couldn’t we just walk in like normal human beings?” Luckily he’s a werewolf, so his tongue heals quick.

“Shut up” Theo repeats crawling towards the side of the door and Liam swears, if he tells him to shut up one more time he’ll bit his tongue too. “Listen, we need team work, okay? You use your  senses to hear them and you tell me when to shoot. We’ll fuck them up.”

It doesn’t sound like a good plan, because no plan sounds good on Theo’s lips, but he looks so sure of himself and it’s not like Liam has something else to do besides dying right now, so he crawls next to him.  
“That’s not how you hold a gun” He points out looking at Theo’s hands. Not that Liam knows the proper way to do it, but that’s not it, he can bet on it. Then he hears them. “There are two” He whispers, slowly standing up. “They’re close. You shoot the first and I take down the second, okay?”

Theo nods, tightening his wrong grip on the gun. “Okay.”

“Five...four...” Liam starts counting slowly, too slowly actually. “Shit, _now!”_

He bursts out of the door, ready to take down the farthest hunter, just as Theo shoots him in the ankle. Fuck.

Liam falls to the floor wining in pain and both hunters point their gun at him. He should have just gone with his original heroic plan, being crippled and then shoot down because of lack of coordination is such a stupid way to die, this would never happen to Jon Snow.   

What did happened to Jon Snow tough is being saved by last minute reinforcements and Argent and his men cover the role perfectly. Liam stumbles back on his feet and he’s so glad nobody was filming him now.

“Oh thank god” He sighs in relief just a second before Theo walks in the aisle, instantly drawing every single gun on him.  

“Wait no, he’s with us, he helped me” Liam hurries stepping in front of him, making everyone frown.

“He just shot you.” Argent says slowly, like Liam just suddenly dissociated himself from his ankle and didn’t know that already by the excruciating pain.

“Yeah, we suck at this team work thing, but he’s with us” He insists as Theo reaches him, glancing angrily at his ankle.

“You said _now_ and then you ran right in front of my trajectory, what are you stupid?” He mutters and Liam is so tempted to step aside and retract everything, nope, never saw him before, bad guy for sure.

“I didn’t think you could aim right, you usually suck at hunter things” He retorts annoyed. “And _in fact_ , where were you aiming, at their feet?”

Before Theo can reply with some nonsense of his, Argent is kneeling at Liam’s feet, because he’s the king of humans too now apparently. Where are his cheering choirs tough? _The king in the North!_

“Let’s take the bullet out before the wolfsbane affect you” Argent mutters and then the excruciating pain in Liam’s ankle multiplies as he tucks his finger _into_ it. Fuck this, fuck this so much. Liam rests his hand on the cold wall to keep his balance and heroically suppresses pained groans between his teeth, even if being heroic didn’t bring him anywhere. After a while Theo’s warm fingers close around his forearm, hesitant.

“You’re not a werewolf, you can’t take pain” Liam informs him because he really doesn’t know anything, does he.  

Theo looks confused by that and then annoyed, but he doesn’t move his hand. “Sure, now just werewolves can comfort someone, right? Fuck humans. Everyone needs to be supernatural or fuck him.”

Liam doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but his lips let a very small whine escape as Argent finally pulls the bullet out. Theo leans over Liam’s shoulder to look at the back of his ankle and Liam huffs, his nostrils suddenly submerged by worry.  

“Is it out? Is he healing now?” He asks solicitous as Liam glances at him with the corner of his eyes. What a weirdo. First he stabs him, then he shots him, and now this. Consistency really is just a word nowadays. “Is it normal it’s not healing yet?”

Argent, on the other hand, doesn’t smell worried at all as he stands up and nods at his men to go on searching the place. He doesn’t like Liam much, he thinks, he says he always gets in troubles and has no survival instinct. Bullshit. “Give it some minutes and he'll be as new.”

Theo doesn’t seem convinced but Argent’s rifle is very big and he lets him go without remonstrations. He still keeps standing there glancing at Liam and flooding him with concern tough. Anxiety is not a pleasant smell, but Liam doesn’t hate it.

“I’m fine” He says as the pain in his ankle starts fading away.

Theo blinks astonished, like he just woke up from something, and he shrugs. “I know” He says trying to look uninterested, leaving his forearm. Liam manages to let his arms on his sides for almost five seconds before Theo grabs him again, frowning at his left wrist.  

“You’re not healing here” He points out, looking unhappy at the red marks left by the ropes.

“I am” Liam shrugs, distracted by the way Theo’s wet hair strands brush his eyes. Nice. “Just slower, because there was wolfsbane on the ropes.”

Theo doesn’t seem to hear him as he slowly moves his fingers on his wrist and then on the back of his hand, tracing Liam’s thumb until he’s met with his still extended claw. He frowns, touching it with his fingertips, a curious look on his eyes. Liam stills, observing his face, and Theo must feels his eyes on him because he suddenly stiffens, dropping his hand.    

“So...” He says clearing his voice.

Liam raises his brows, retracting his claws. “So?”  

Theo smiles, confident. “Can we date now?”

“Nope, you shot me.”

 

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go. I apologize if there are typos or stuff like that but this chapter it's so long and I really want to post it now or else it would have been tomorrow, and for the same reason sorry if I don't answer individually to the lovely comments of last chapter, just know that I love you all and I can't thank you enough for your kind words every time. I'm so happy you guys enjoyed this story, I had so much fun writing it and I hope you'll like this last chapter as well.

 

 

“You got in the way! It wasn’t my fault.”

Liam did got in the way to be fair, but he’s also a firm believer that when you shoot someone, it’s never _not_ your fault.

“You still stabbed me” He points out stubborn, crossing his arms. “Three times.”

Theo rolls his pretty, pretty eyes. “Stop with that, I just saved your life.”

“That’s why I’m not eating you alive.”

“You can eat me anytime, I already told you that” Theo replies very serious before winking.

The outrage at that is real and Liam tries to ignore it, but his cheeks instantly catch fire, drawing a smirk on Theo’s lips. 

“Stop that, I won’t date you just because you saved my life.” That would be ridiculous. He would be dating so many people if that was the case, Scott above them all.

“No, you’ll date me because you like me.” Theo grins and his heart doesn’t even miss a beat, he’s _genuinely_ convinced Liam likes him, the madman. 

“I don’t” Liam snorts, so overwhelmed by the ridiculousness of the thought he almost forgot to finish the sentence. “Like you.”

“That’s why you offered me dinner during your fake kidnapping, because you don’t like me?” Theo arches his left brow, sceptical, and Liam hates his show of skills, being able to raise just one eyebrow doesn’t make him better than him. Liam can move his ears anyway and that’s so much cooler.

 “I didn’t offer you anything, I was just being a responsible kidnapper and feeding my p-”

“You think I’m hot.” Theo suddenly steps closer cutting him off and Liam stills, deeply disturbed by the excessive proximity. That’s his personal space over there and he didn’t invite anyone in it, so Theo can take his unauthorized face, with the stare and the scruff and the juicy lips, and all of his smooth tanned exposed skin and bring them somewhere else and he can take his shoulders too and maybe cover them with a shirt that actually fits and doesn’t look like it’s about to rip under the tension since he’s at it.

Liam swallows, holding his gaze. “I think you have an awful personality.”

“You still like me” Theo insists and Liam wants to throw his confident ass out of his living space, but he can’t do that while still looking unaffected.

“I don’t.” Liam proceeds then to move his ears, just to show this guy who he’s dealing with. Someone with skills, that’s who. Theo doesn’t seem to notice, because Liam can’t move them _that_ much, okay, you need to pay attention to see it and Theo never pays attention to anything other than himself.  

“You don’t like me, that’s what you’re saying” He mocks him all sceptical because God forbid for someone to have a personal opinion.

“That’s what I said.” Liam confirms.

“What you said.” Theo repeats slowly, frowning. “And what are you saying now?”

“That I said what I said.”  
“What?”

Liam has no idea. “Exactly” He says and then he makes a smug face to win anyway.  

Theo sighs, suddenly resigned. “This is confusing, can’t we just date already?”

As if it was that easy. Where this guy lives, in _easyland?_ Well, Liam lives in the real world, where a broken leg can lead you to being pushed from the roof of an hospital and then tied up in a bathtub and where following hot strangers in dark tiny places lead you to a stab wound. There’s no such thing as _easy_ where Liam lives.

“You were an hunter thinking I deserved to _die_ until like two seconds ago” Liam says resolute, crossing his arms. “We’re not dating.” Theo stays quiet and after a second he lowers his eyes, smelling all sad. Liam almost feels bad, but not really. “You fucking stabbed me!” He adds defensive because _hell no_ , he’s not the bad guy here, his family and friends would have smelled sad too if he died in that alley. Maybe not Corey, who’s probably always in favour of death, but everyone else would have. 

“You said that one hundred times, I get it” Theo huffs and then he turns around, starting to walk away all miserable. Liam would ask him if he wants to play some sad music too to accompany his dramatic exit, fricking drama queen. Liam won’t stop him like the asshole is surely expecting him to do, because he has a brain and he’s not going to let Theo acting like a kicked puppy make him feel guilty for not pretending the stabbing thing never happened.  

“I didn’t say we can _never_ date!” In his defence, Theo does a very good kicked puppy interpretation. “We can, just not now” He adds as Theo turns back hesitant. Fuck Mason, Liam won’t sabotage himself. “But we can still, I don’t know, hang out with my pack? Like, maybe not the other werewolves, you know, one thing at a time, and they wouldn’t be as incredibly forgiving as I am if you stabbed them too” Theo raises his brows, surely trying to insinuate stuff about Liam’s forgiving nature, because he truly expects people not to hold grudge for attempted murders apparently. That’s how things work in easyland. “But Mason and Corey, if we don’t let him bring forks or pointed objects, we can go out with them maybe?”

Theo tilts his head to the side, thoughtful. “As a double date?”

“I mean as _friends._ Like, okay, we’ll invite Nolan too. All of us. Friendly. So we can form other memories that don’t involve daggers before a real date, yeah?”

Theo considers it for awhile and then he nods. “Okay. So, we date as friends?”

He really wants to put the date word in there, doesn’t he.

“Yes, we’ll see if we can be friends after the shit you pulled. And if we can, maybe one day we can actually date, if we don’t start dating someone else while we are dating just as friends of course.” Liam is so not going to keep the commitment part of dating while cutting out all the fun parts. “In that case we just stay friends. Which is still a big development since where we started. You know, graduality, not jumping from one extreme to the other. Is this okay?”

Theo sighs imperceptibly and then he nods, his voice quiet. “Okay.”

Liam frowns. “Yeah well, don’t sound too happy.”

“I’m not, I want to date you, I don’t want you to start dating someone else while we’re busy not dating” Theo mutters and Liam snorts.

“Too bad, you should have thought about that before stabbing me.”

“You tortured me, but I’m not holding a grudge, am I?”

This guy is on drugs, there’s no other explanation. “I didn’t do _anything_ to you.”

Liam is expecting some other craziness, but Theo suddenly smirks, victorious. “So you finally admit that you can’t torture people with a lamp?”

Liam gasps incredulous and then he shoves him. “Fuck you.” Theo takes a step back chuckling and Liam picks this moment to leave. His mom will be wondering how much time he’s taking to dispose of the garbage anyway.

“So when we go out as friends?” Theo calls after him and Liam slows just a bit.

“Tomorrow after school” He answers without turning back. “And don’t try to look all hot and well dressed, it’s not a date.”

“I don’t need to try.”

Liam can see that.

 

***

 

 

“So, this is Nolan, he tried to kill me too. You two should get along.”

Both Theo and Nolan interrupt their handshake to roll their eyes at that and Liam chuckles satisfied. “Then we have Mason, my traitorous best friend...” Mason smiles warmly at Theo. “And this is Corey.”

Theo leans towards Corey’s held out hand just to stop at the last second, glancing at Liam.

“Corey as in the one who wanted you to claw my eyes out?”

“That one.” Liam confirms.

Theo freezes for a second, staring at Corey’s innocent little smile, then he shrugs and shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you.” He says as Liam stares suspiciously at Corey’s pockets. There can’t be a fork in there, can’t it? “But you must know Liam won’t touch my eyes, he likes them too much.”

Wait what? Theo looks all proud and smug and Liam is just about to put him in his place, but Corey precedes him.

“ _I_ ’ll do it if you stab him again. I have fake claws at home.”

“He shot me this time” Liam says automatically, deciding not to linger on why Corey would need fake claws or where he got them from.

“That too” Corey nods and he’s still holding Theo’s hand.

Theo shrugs, unimpressed. “You’re still leaving me a large field” He smirks, an amused glimpse in his eyes. “I could set him on fire or push him from a wind-”

“Theo.” Liam warns him because he’s not sure Corey doesn’t actually have a fork in his pocket.

Theo smiles at him and then goes back to Corey. “I won’t, don’t worry. I like him too much.”

Liam’s heart makes a little funny jump in his chest. “Seriously, don’t worry” He  mutters to Corey, clearing his throat and feeling his cheeks on fire under Theo’s amused gaze. “He doesn’t even know how to hold a gun anyway.”

 

***

 

 

Liam had been joking, but Nolan and Theo really go along surprisingly well and that’s a bit concerning. What’s even more concerning is the fact that Theo’s favourite ice-cream flavour is mint, and that kinda explains everything, of course someone who loves mint would also love stabbing people. He has been nice tough, until now. No stabbing or shooting or talking about werewolves being dangerous. He also pretended to be interested in Mason’s cans collection – Liam just won’t accept the possibility that he wasn’t faking. He didn’t listen to what Liam said tough: he _did_ try to look hot, there’s no way he didn’t. You don’t just wear pants that make your ass look like that by accident. But Liam almost forgave him the stabbing thing, so he can forgive the excessive hotness too he guesses. He’ll just have to cohabit with it for the rest of the day somehow.

Mason and Corey have  been starting acting like an annoying couple since some minutes, holding hands and walking a bit ahead of them, because apparently the discussion Liam is having with Theo and Nolan about what’s better between pizza and sushi isn’t interesting enough for them, when Theo suddenly speaks.

“Can I hold your hand?” 

“It’s not heavy, I can carry it by myself just fine, thank you” Liam reassures him and Nolan starts giggling. Such a weird kid. 

“I mean, can I hold it anyway?” Theo frowns a little, before nodding at Mason and Corey. “Like they’re doing?”

“Oh, like them” Liam stares at his friends’ romantically intertwined fingers, realization hitting him. He wasn’t just being nice, he wants to do couples things with him. “No, you can’t, it’s not a date, remember?”

Theo nods, compliant. “Yes, I remember. I meant as friends, can we hold hands as friends?”

Liam considers it. Can they?

“Friends don’t hold hands.” He decides eventually.  

“Yes they do” Theo replies immediately and his heart confirms he’s lying and he still can’t be trusted.  

“Well, then I’ll hold my friend Nolan’s hand, since this is a thing friends do apparently.” Nolan starts walking faster, but Liam grabs his hand before he can escape, glancing satisfied at Theo. He looks very annoyed by it for some seconds, and then he looks petty.

“You do that, sure” He says shrugging. “I’ll just hold Mason’s hand.”

And he does it, jogging forward and grabbing Mason’s free hand.

 Mason looks confused and Corey doesn’t say anything, but he keeps staring at Theo’s hand with his brows furrowed. Liam now knows he didn’t have a fork in his pockets, or it would be in Theo’s eye now. Instead he’s there smiling all satisfied without any fork in his eyes, glancing back at Liam to see if he’s bothered by this. Liam is not. He couldn’t care less actually. 

“You have two seconds to leave my best friend’s hand.”

He _could_ care less, okay, but just a little bit.

Theo reeks of satisfaction now. “Can’t do that, he’s the only one willing to hold mine.”

“I’ll hold your hand” Nolan says immediately and Liam shoves him aside. 

“Fine, I’ll hold your stupid hand, now leave Mason” He grumbles walking faster to catch up with them. Theo smiles satisfied and offers his now free hand to Liam, who stare at it annoyed.  

“Whatever, at least you can’t use it to stab anyone this way” He huffs grabbing it, slapping his palm against Theo’s. They take a few steps before Theo sneakily intertwines their fingers.

“What? That was the children way to hold hands” He shrugs when he feels Liam’s glare on him.

“And this is the couples way to do it.” Liam mutters bitter. It’s not a date and still he has been tricked into couples stuff. Unacceptable.

Theo’s lips curl into a guilty little smile as he shrugs. “Nope, _this_ is how couples do it.” He says bringing their jointed hands on his hip, so that Liam is basically hugging him as they walk.   

Oh hell no. Liam pulls back and Theo immediately leaves his hand. “Joking, sorry.”

Liam stares at him suspiciously and Theo lowers his eyes, blushing a little.  

Mason is now talking shit about sushi and Liam angrily puts him in his place because nobody does that in front of him, and then he nonchalantly grabs Theo’s hand again because he can’t trust him not to stab anyone after all. And it kinda feels nice too, but it’s mostly for safety reasons.

“Did you guys invited me to a fricking double date two days after my hopes with Brett died for good?”

What the hell is Nolan on about now? Liam really can't catch his breath with so many weird people surrounding him.

“Nobody is dating anybody here” Liam clarifies instantly, because if Mason and Corey want to date and shit they can do it in their free time.

“Then why is everybody holding hands except me?” Nolan mutters all whiney because not everyone can be as stoic as Liam, who has been kidnapped and tortured just yesterday and still hasn’t complained once.  

“You can hold mine Nolan” Corey offers generously, before glaring at Nolan as soon as he tries to actually take his hand. “If you promise not to stab it again.”

Nolan stops hesitant, either because he finds the promise difficult to keep or he finds Corey too dangerous to approach. And he should by the way, talking Corey out of literally crucify Nolan in the library to make an example out of him was both disturbing and hard. He had looked for wooden crosses on Amazon.

Theo raises his brows, perplexed. “You stabbed his hand?”

“With a pencil” Nolan specifies as if this made it better and Theo looks intrigued.

“Don’t give him strange ideas, Nolan.” Liam gives a warning squeeze to Theo’s hand, who glances at him innocently, before turning back to Nolan.

“Who is Brett?”

“The hottest guy at school.” Nolan sighs dreamy and what is he, blind? Did Corey take his eyes already and this is why he can’t he see who he’s talking too right now? Liam is a little tired of being the only one making sense in every circumstance. Brett, of all people, hotter than Theo _, please._  

“He’s not” He mutters under his breath, totally ignored by everyone.

“And why did your hopes with him die?” Theo asks curious as Nolan tugs his hands in his pockets, wisely far away from Corey’s.

“Because he started dating Hayden” He grumbles annoyed and Liam almost feels sorry for him, not as much as he would if Brett reciprocated his feelings of course, because that would be an even bigger misfortune in his opinion. His pity doesn’t last long tough, because Nolan is glaring at him now. What the fuck. “ _Liam’s_ ex.”

Liam is so outraged by Nolan’s accusatory tone he can’t even put into words how unfair this is. What does he think, that he _meant_ for Hayden to break up with him on his lucky day and then go on a date with Brett? He’s the victim too here and if someone is at fault it’s Mason, who always assured Nolan Brett was absolutely into him as well. Not that Liam didn’t have the same impression, but he never encouraged Nolan or said anything, because he didn’t think it was something to be happy about. Liam is ready to defend himself once again from the injustices of the world, but Theo’s weird change of scent suddenly distracts him. What has he to be so anxious about now?  Liam glances confused at Corey’s hands, but he’s not holding any weapon.

“Hayden as in...” Finally Theo clears his voice, looking hesitant at Liam. “A girl?”

“No, a giant squirrel” Liam huffs, curling his nose. It’s like Theo is assaulting him with his explosion of different chemosignals right now. “Yes, a girl.”

Theo stares at him. “So, you like...girls.”

Not only he’s talking ridiculously slowly now, he also slowed down his pace.  

Liam shrugs. “Clearly.”

“And...” Liam waits, but it doesn’t seem like Theo will stop being all slow and staring anytime soon.  You can’t be that pretty and also smart, Liam knew that already.

“Giant squirrels too.”

“I mean-”

“Yes, he likes boys too, don’t worry.” Mason was literally talking about something else with Corey and this confirms all Liam’s suspicions about him having a specific section of his brain always on alert to spy and pick up every little thing going on in Liam’s life, just waiting his time to intervene. Liam doesn’t need Mason to do that, he can do just fine with his own supervision over his existence and he’s just about to tell him that, but the wave of relief coming from his side catches his attention. Theo, right.

“Oh, that. Yes. I like both.” He confirms and Theo nods imperceptibly, the corner of his mouth curling up a little.

“Okay. Good.”

Liam is not sure how he feels about the fact that Theo was there all anxious at the thought of him not liking boys. It’s a little adorable, but mostly stupid, because what the hell does he think he’s holding his hand for when they already established he sucks at stabbing and aiming anyway. Idiot.

“It _is_ a double date then.”

“Shut up, Nolan.”

 

***

 

 

Liam is not sure of when exactly their _let’s walk around and chat_ afternoon turned into a _let’s all tell Theo the most embarrassing anecdotes of Liam’s life and then laugh at him_ afternoon, but that’s what’s happening now. Liam doesn’t understand why it must be the time he accidentally called his professor _mom_ and not the time he heroically saved Brett’s life from the hunters, these are supposed to be his friends but they’re all incredibly unfriendly, and still he doesn’t hate it.

Maybe it’s because of how hard Theo laughs every time and keeps looking at him even as they talk, watery eyes and red cheeks like he could listen to stories about Liam’s misfortunes all day long. It’s not okay, you’re not supposed to laugh at other people’s tragedies, but if you really need to do it, it’s better if you at least have such a pretty laugh, Liam guesses.

It’s because of the pretty laugh Liam finds his lips moving without permission.

“Mason, are you sure you can’t cancel it then?”

“Cancel what?”

That’s a good question. “The thing” Liam answers, buying himself time. A very short time, since everyone is looking at him now. “The concert. That you three have later. Like, in twenty minutes on the other side of the city.”  
“We’re going to a concert?” Nolan sounds very excited.

“They cancel the concert if _they_ don’t go?” Theo sounds sceptical instead, because he needs to be a pain in the ass all the time, no exception.

“Yes. Because they...” He’s regretting his choice of words now, but he didn’t actually chose them, Theo just laughed and they erupted out of Liam’s mouth. “They play. They’re the band.”

“We’re the band.” Nolan doesn’t sound excited anymore.  
“I don’t play. I hate music.” As if Liam needed another proof of Corey’s being a psychopath. Who the hell hates music?

“Metal. Corey sings.”Liam is so proud of himself, just keeping his cool and avoiding every sabotage attempt from his so called friends without headbutting them like he wants to. This is adaptability at his finest. “He sings about his hatred for music, it’s cool, you should come to see them sometimes. But not today, because we didn’t buy tickets. So we can’t go. You don’t go to concert without tickets, it’s just wrong.” If somebody could just confirm his story now Liam would appreciate it a lot, but everyone just keeps staring at him, because you can count just on yourself in life, this is the harsh truth. “So yeah, they have to go alone, just the three of them. Unless Mason decides to cancel the concert so they can stay here with us, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea, a lot of people are coming.”

“Is Brett coming?” Nolan asks hopeful.

“Nobody is coming, there’s no concert, it’s been years since the last time I played my flute.”

Mason is one of the few persons Liam never punched in his life and the need to change that is strong now.

“Here we go again, he gets always unsecure before every concert” He sighs dramatically, glancing at Theo. “Just excuse us for a second.”

“I hate music” He hears Corey repeat upset as he pulls Mason away from the bench they were sitting on.

“You’ll do great, nobody plays the flute like you, Mase.” He says out loud before turning his voice into an angry whisper. “Oh my god, aren’t you supposed to be the smart one? I need you to disappear with an excuse and bring Corey and Nolan away too!”

“Well, I knew it was an excuse, I just didn’t want to believe it. Of all the things you could have said, you went with this one. Have you ever heard Corey sing? I love him, but-”

“He can take lessons or something!” Liam snaps impatient, because _so_ not the point. “And I don’t care, okay, I just need to be alone with Theo.”

Mason frowns. “But you said-”

“I know what I said, but I also said that you need to go play the flute to a metal concert, who the fucks plays flute in metal bands? And why would you be the one with the power of cancelling the concert if you played the flute? We all know you wouldn’t have power at all if that was the case, flute is so stupid, Mase, I’m sorry but it’s the truth and I hated when you used to play it, all the saliva always getting stuck in it, it was disgusting, only the worst kind of people plays flute, that’s who-”  
“Liam, the point.”

“The point is that you don’t need to believe or remember everything I say, because sometimes I’ll say stupid stuff.”

“Shocking.” Liam glares and Mason sighs.“Look, it’s not like I don’t do that already, ignoring the stupid stuff you say. It’s just that it didn’t sound stupid to me, not wanting to date right away and ignore the stabbing thing. It sounded incredibly reasonable.”

“That’s because I’m both incredible and reasonable” Liam concedes automatically. “But I don’t care now, have you seen him? He actually listened to you talking about me for twenty minutes without smelling bored and like, _have you seen him.”_ Mason doesn’t point out he already said that and Liam appreciates him a lot for that. “I don’t care about being friends, I mean of course I do, but one of the friends you kiss and date and everything right? And I’m a werewolf, I can jump as far as I want to, from one extreme to the other, just like that, _puff_ , fuck graduality.”

Liam doesn’t need Mason’s blessing, he’s a traitorous friend and he played the flute when he was younger, so who cares what he thinks about this, he’s the first one dating a psychopath anyway, but he still finds himself chewing his fingernails nervously as he waits for Mason to emit his verdict.

“I mean, as your best friend, I’m obliged to tell you that this is a terrible idea and he did infact tried to kill you just a few weeks ago.” Mason considers eventually, thoughtful. “As a gay man with two eyes tough, I’m obliged to tell you that you’re crazy if you wait.”

And that’s all Liam needed.

 

***

 

 

Liam thinks that now that Mason is on board he’s going to handle his own exit in a less suspicious way, without being too obvious. He doesn’t. They come back to the bench and he immediately grabs Corey and Nolan without a word and then he’s running away, pulling them with him. Liam never saw anything so suspicious in his life.

Theo stares at them for the long two minutes they take to disappear from sight –fricking traffic- and then he turns to Liam. He doesn’t ask anything, but every single inch of his face does.

Liam clears his throat, slightly uncomfortable. “Something came up.” 

Theo raises his brows. “Was the something you?”

This is a good moment to lie.

“Yes.”

Fuck.

Theo looks surprised at Liam’s accidental honesty. “And why did you send them away?” He asks slowly.  
“Because...” Why did he, again? “I wanted to focus on our thing. The new thing we’re working on, you know, the friendship thing.”

Theo must think he’s a werewolf too now because he’s staring so much like he’s trying to listen to Liam’s heartbeat or something. “Our thing.”

“The friendship, yes.” Liam nods.

“So we’re still not dating.”

“Correct.”

“Even if you just asked your other friends to leave you alone with me.”

“Exactly.”

Theo looks thoughtful for awhile and then he shrugs. “Okay. Can I pretend I believed everything you said and ask them about their concert next time I see them?

“You have to” Liam grins. “Ask for a live performance too.”  

Theo chuckles and Liam does too, even if it’s not that funny.

“Well, I’m happy they had to go to their imaginary concert” Theo says after a while, smiling. And look at that, he can be nice after all. “Now that we’re alone it will be much easier to allure you somewhere isolated and stab you again.”

Liam didn’t intend to make him fall from the bench with his shove, but sometimes good things happen even when you don’t try.

 

***

 

 

“I think your friend has a crush on me.”

They’re wandering lazily on the streets without a destination and surprisingly Theo hasn’t been annoying for quite awhile now, he even showed Liam where he lives and he has been all friendly, so of course it couldn’t last.   

Liam sighs, annoyed. “Which one?”

“The cute one.”

Oh fuck off now.  
“The cute one.”  He repeats sceptical.

“Yes, Nolan, right?”

“And you couldn’t just say Nolan.”

Theo shrugs, looking all innocent. “What? He’s cute.”

“Do I have stupid written on my forehead?” Liam asks and Theo’s eyes actually dart on his forehead, pissing him off even more. “I see _right_ through you, you know. You want me to rethink the whole not dating thing by making me jealous. Well, let me tell you something, first of all, I don’t do jealous.” Liam pauses to let that sink in. He’s not sure how much time he should wait now and he’d like to throw a glance at his phone to see the time and make a plan or something, but you don’t break eyes contact when you’re making a point, so he doesn’t. When Theo raises his brows Liam decides that it sank already. “And second of all, Nolan is little and annoying and he’s not allowed to have a sexual life, so he would be off limits anyway.”

“Isn’t he the same age as yo-”

“He’s little and innocent and he’s off limits” Liam repeats ignoring him. “And you’re not interested in Nolan anyway, like not at all, I told you: I can smell you and hear your heartbeat and your breathing and I know exactly what’s going on in your little evil mind all the time, you’re like an open book.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Theo smirks, smug. “What am I thinking now?”

“You’re thinking...” Liam has no idea. “That you’re being smart. But you’re not.”

“Nope, I’m thinking that your eyes are pretty.”

“Yeah well, you said that already.”

Theo chuckles, shouldering him lightly. “Are you fishing for compliments now? You want a different one?”

Liam snorts outraged because he never fished for compliments in his life.

“I’m _just_ saying that if you’re going to compliment me then you could at least vary a litt-”

“The rest of you is pretty too.”

“Oh. Well.” Liam clears his throat, feeling an unwanted heat creeping out his cheeks. “The rest of me like, for example...I mean, that was very generic.” Liam always liked precision.

“I’d tell you, but I feel like that amount of compliments would be inappropriate for our _not a date_.” Theo looks so happy with his answer, like he won or proved something. He didn’t.

“Oh wow, blackmailing now, I’ll compliment you but only if you date me, this is very mature of you Theo, really matur-”

“You make me laugh” He says and Liam freezes. “I could listen to you all day even if I have no idea what you’re talking about half of the time. You’re fierce and funny and it’s stupid how much I like you already when we met just two weeks ago.”

Liam would love to point out that _met_ is such an euphemism for the painful way this guy entered his life -and his stomach- but he finds himself just gasping, taken aback.

“Also, you’re ridiculously hot when you roar.”

Liam agrees so much, he always thought that of himself, it’s about time someone notices it. He still doesn’t know how to move his lips to form some kind of reply tough.

“Like, if it wasn’t for the other hunters and the torture part I would have wet my-”

“Okay, that’s...I heard the weather is really nice in Wyoming today.” How can his voice sound so thrill and distant from a hot roar now is beyond Liam. He also has no idea what’s happening in Wyoming right now.

“Do you do that in bed too? Can you shift while having sex?”

“Not too cold and not too hot, just the perfect weather for Wyoming people today.” Maybe they’re having some kind of natural disaster and hundreds of people are dying. Liam is not even sure where  Wyoming is exactly.

“And how the healing thing works? Let’s say I give you a hickey, it just disappears right away or if I try hard enough-”  

“They’re just so lucky in Wyoming, I wish I’d be there!” Liam is basically screaming now. “The perfect weather!”

“It’s fucking raining in Wyoming, stop!” Theo snaps and Liam frowns. He wants to defend Wyoming weather with all his soul now, but Theo’s heart didn’t miss a beat. It’s actually raining in Wyoming. Liam feels so betrayed right now.

“Wait, how do you know.”

Theo shrugs. “I checked earlier.”

“You checked.”

“Yes. Smartphones do that.”

“You randomly checked the weather in Wyoming this morning.” Liam repeats. There must be some clear logic that he’s missing there.

“Not just Wyoming, a lot of places. It’s a thing I do when I’m bored.”

“You check the weather in America.”

Theo nods. “Europe too. It’s sunny in most of Italy today.”

“This is very weird.” Liam concludes and then he takes out his phone. “I bet there’s a thunderstorm in Berlin right now.”

 

***

 

 

“Look, there’s an alley.”

They’ve been playing what Liam likes to call _guess the weather for no reason_ for awhile now – Theo is totally winning by the way, but he’s also totally cheating, he must have looked and memorized the weather in every single city in the world the freak – when Theo stops near a little, hidden lane.

“So?”

Theo smirks. “Do we go in?”

“Why would we?”

“As a trust exercise. Do you trust me enough to follow me into a dark alley now?”

Theo throws him once last glance and then he disappears in the alley.

 

He comes out two minutes later.

“So you don’t, okay. Good to know.”

 

***

 

 

“I mean, I’m the one who’s been dragged out unconscious from an alley to wake up as a prisoner in your basement, if I can get past that, you-”

Theo is still complaining about the trusting test, which is ridiculous because you shouldn’t try trusting tests with someone you literally stabbed, or with Liam in general, because Liam can trust nobody, not even his best friend.

“Look, it’s not that I actually think you’ll try something evil again, but I’m not challenging the universe right away, we’ll do the trust exercise at the second d-” Liam suddenly stops, realizing what his traitorous tongue was going to say. And how can he trust anyone when he can’t even trust his tongue, really.

Theo is smirking in his weird way, like a cat who just ate a canary. “The second what?”

“Day.” Liam answers immediately, silently complimenting himself for his brilliant reflexes. “Second day we go out as friends.”

“Right.” Theo nods slowly. “So this is the first...day.”

“Exactly.”

“And there will be more days.” He continues uncertain.

“Yes, days, weeks, months...the kind of thing you have in a friendship.”

“Of course.”

“And we’ll do all kind of trust experiments, because friends trust each others.” Liam is lying to make him happy now. He doesn’t trust a single one of his friends, starting with large-mouth Mason, the most traitorous of all traitors, and his murdering boyfriend, and ending with Scott, who calls him just to show off his abs and seduce him. “I’ll follow you in public and well illuminated places and you’ll follow me in a basement trusting me not to tie you up again.”

“I’d love to be tied up again, naked this time” Theo says innocently and Liam instantly finds out that you can choke in your own saliva. “We can do that whenever you want.”

 _“So_ ” And there it is again, the ridiculously high voice. “Do you want a-” Liam’s eyes frenetically dart to the first shop he catches in sight. “A cover for your phone?  
“What?”

Liam’s eyes run again. There’s a bar too.

“I mean, do you want a coffee or something?”

“Sure.”

Liam wonders what the hell Theo has to look so amused now.

 

**

 

 

When they walk out of the bar,  where Theo tried to flirt with the waitress because he really doesn’t believe that Liam doesn’t to jealous apparently, the sky has started to darken and the street lamps are now on.

“This was your plan all along, wasn’t it” Theo sighs stopping in front of one of them, bringing a hand to his heart. “Allure me into a fake date to torture me with an even bigger lamp.”

Liam grins, guilty. “You got me.”

Theo smiles and then he suddenly looks determinate. “Let’s do the trust thing.” He says quickly and Liam frowns.

“What?”  
“I’ll close my eyes and trust you not to use this big lamp against me.” Theo explains and then he lowers his eyelids, not before he took a little step closer to Liam tough. “Just waiting here, with my eyes closed” He hums slowly, his lips coloured by the warm light above them both. “Wondering what you will do about it.”

Liam knows Theo wants him to kiss him. Liam also knows that _he_ wants to kiss him.

“Open your eyes” He whispers stepping closer and when Theo does it he activates the torch of his phone, held right in front of his eyes.

Liam wanted to kiss him, really, but he wanted to do this more.

“Fuck!” Theo immediately steps back covering his eyes with his hand.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist” Liam chuckles as Theo keeps imprecating between his teeth, rubbing his eyes.

“Did I actually blind you?” Liam asks after awhile of Theo not joining his giggles.

“No, you just ruined the moment” He mutters pouting.

“You were standing there with your eyes closed while talking to yourself out loud” Liam points out. “There wasn’t a moment.” 

“I was _creating_ it.”

“Oh, I didn’t notice, sorry. You’re bad at creating moments.” Liam shrugs unapologetic.

“Oh yeah? Then try and create one yourself if you can.”

Liam snorts complacent because he couldn’t have asked for anything easier. “Sure I can, I create moments all the time, I’m just naturally cinematographically blessed, like...” Liam clears his voice, staring deeply at Theo, right through his soul with his best dramatic expression. “Just you and me?”  
“What?”

“Oh come on!” Liam snaps irritated. Why does he have to deal with incompetents all the time? “You were supposed to say ‘you and me against the world’, I can’t create moments if you sabotage me!”

“Against who, what does that mean?”

“It means _stuff_ okay?” Liam huffs impatient. “It’s a _moment_ , they do it all the time in movies.”

“Yeah, well they also do the _oh, you have something on your lip, here, let me help_ , and then the brushing and the touching” Theo’s hand is now very close to Liam’s face and as he speaks he feels his thumb starting brushing slowly the corner of his mouth. “And then time stops and you throw a long stare in there, with the predictable long silence” Theo stops moving but his thumb is still touching Liam’s lower lip and his eyes are so big and green it’s ridiculous. “But it doesn’t mean it’s good in reality too or that we have to do it.” Theo concludes retracting his hand.

Liam starts breathing again.

“Yes it does” He says clearing his voice. “Everything that looks good in movies looks good in reality too, watch.” He kneels and Theo’s brows furrow as Liam pretends to hand something to him. “Will you marry me?” He says out loud so that everyone can hear it.

Theo looks very dubious. “...Yes?”

Liam stands up, satisfied. Point made. “See? They’re all clapping.” There is just an old lady with her dog actually, but she’s clapping very hard. “It looks good.”

Theo shrugs.“It’s fake.”

“Your face is fake!”   

“What?” Theo asks perplexed and Liam kisses him.

When he was a kid, Liam once ran right into a wall, face first, and Theo is not a wall, but the dynamic reminds him a little of that moment, their noses basically crushing into each other in a way that Liam is sure it’s not the way noses are supposed to come into contact during kisses, the teeth and their hard meeting, the shocked sound coming from Theo, his green eyes wide opened as Liam basically stabs him with his tongue. Now they’re even.

“And then of course there’s the _now I kiss you to win this argument_.” Liam says when they part, after a few seconds. “It’s a classic. Comedies, romantic movies and stuff like that.”

Theo looks so astonished that Liam fears he actually hit a vital part and killed him when stabbing him with his tongue, but then he comes back to life just to contradict him.

“You think you won the argument?”  
“Yes.”

“I didn’t even know we were having an argument.”

Liam shrugs. “Me neither, but I won.”

And then Theo is kissing him. It feels a little less like crushing face first into a wall and their noses actually find a way to fit both into it without fighting this time, but it also feels like a premeditated attack. Liam tries but he can’t really defend himself so he just goes on with it and before he even fully acknowledged he’s kissing back Theo has moved away. 

“And what was this for?” Liam inquires trying not to linger on Theo’s heavy breath or the way his lips are swollen and wet.

“Because it felt good.” He says and Liam immediately loses his fight.

“It did.” He agrees and then he has Theo’s lower lip between his and he’s licking it slowly, silently asking for permission this time because he can’t survive another short kiss when he just decided he wants to spend the rest of his life inside Theo’s mouth, just like that, even if it sounds creepy. Theo seems to appreciate the calmer pace because he’s returning the kiss just as softly and slow and they go deep and longer and Liam absently wonders, eyes closed, if the old lady is still there and if she is why the hell she stopped clapping right at best part.   

He groans a little when Theo pulls away, smirking. “Still not a date?”

This is such a _not_ good reason to stop kissing.

“Yep, not a date” He mumbles before placing another kiss on Theo’s lips. When he tries to go deeper, Theo moves his head slightly back, sneering.

“Then maybe you should stop making out with me” He mocks, but his smile doesn’t give that much credibility to his suggestion.

“Now why would I do that” Liam smirks against his mouth and this time Theo’s lips part without resistance, letting him meet his warm tongue. Liam feels a little like falling dead to the ground and so he grips his hair, because he’ll have all the time in the world to faint when he’s not in the middle of the best kiss of his life.

 

***

 

 

“I think we’re pretty much at the end of the movie.” Liam reflects as he lets himself fall on a bench near their lamp street – he’s not sure how he feels about the fact that they now have a lamp street that is _theirs_. Theo sits next to him and Liam starts thinking about a way to do it, like maybe the classic _I’m stretching myself and now my arm is on your shoulder, ups, might as well leave it there_ , but Theo is already hugging him before he can even move a muscle. “Which means it’s time for a cheesy line before the credits.”

Theo chuckles, ruffling his hair. “You do that.”

“You know” Liam leans in the touch, taking in how much more beautiful Theo looks when he smiles like that. When he smiles at him. “It was my lucky day after all.”

 

 

 

 

 

“Where the fuck are you looking at, Liam.”

“The camera, that's how you do it.”

_"Oh for fuck's sake."_

 

 


End file.
